PA People Count campaign spotlights nonprofits’ struggle with state budget impasse

November 11, 2015 Kim Lyons

The Pittsburgh Foundation and United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania are spearheading a social media campaign to draw attention to the difficulties nonprofits are facing due to the Pennsylvania budget impasse. Using the hashtag #PAPeopleCount, human service agencies in the area already have started voicing their pleas on social media, which is the primary goal of the movement: To unite the organizations as one voice.

 

PA People Count was created to drive home the impact the budget stalemate is having on human services programs, including those that aid children and families. Gov. Tom Wolf and the Republican-controlled Legislature have been unable to reach an agreement on the budget, which is now months past its June 30 deadline.

“Each day the budget impasse continues is another day of crisis for the dedicated nonprofits that deliver vital human services to citizens who often are in dire need,” United Way president Robert Nelkin said in a statement.

In one of the videos on the PAPeopleCount website, Rina Irwin, CEO of Childcare Development Centers Inc., which provides early childhood services, says the budget stalemate shows how unfair the process is: “Everybody down [in Harrisburg] will get a paycheck, but we have to worry about whether our staff will.”

Nearly $765 million in county-managed human services funding is being held up as a result of the delay, the group says. Pennsylvania typically makes human services payments to counties on a quarterly basis but so far this year no payments were made in July or October.

The funding includes appropriations for community mental health, homeless assistance, and behavioral health services, and the base program for disabilities and human services development. And roughly $30.6 million of that would be for child welfare prevention services, the group notes.

“We are putting the spotlight on a dysfunctional budget process in which the first casualties of a standoff are organizations delivering critically important services to those who are least able to protect themselves, Pittsburgh Foundation CEO Maxwell King said in a statement announcing the campaign. “We believe many others connected to human services delivery share the same sense of responsibility to look beyond the current crisis and advocate for long-term reforms.”

PA People Count aims to to keep the pressure on legislators and Gov. Wolf to fully fund human services organizations this year, and to reform the state budget process to safeguard such agencies from future budget stalemates. 

For more information on the campaign, visit the PAPeopleCount website.

Featured image courtesy the Pittsburgh Foundation. 

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Kim Lyons

Kim Lyons is an award-winning writer and editor who spends way too much time on Twitter. She's the news editor at NEXTPittsburgh, and was a 2015 Kiplinger Fellow in Public Affairs Journalism at the Ohio State University.