{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Radio Chatskill","title":"Wayne, Pike Counties Watching as State Budget Impasse Drags On","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":719,"description":"Pennsylvania lawmakers blew past the state’s June 30 deadline to pass a budget, and as the impasse stretches into late August, local leaders in Northeast Pennsylvania are bracing for possible impacts.“The Pennsylvania state budget has a legal deadline of end of June, early July,” said Liam Mayo, news editor of The River Reporter. “And given that it’s almost September now, that budget or that deadline has very clearly come and gone and Pennsylvania does not yet have a finalized budget.”Without a budget, state payments to local agencies are on hold. “The budget is what authorizes the state to sort of spend the money that it has. And without a budget agreement in place, the state can’t send out any of that money,” Mayo explained.The major sticking point is transit funding. “Both Republicans and Democrats want to increase the amount of funding that goes to public transit in Pennsylvania, but there’s sort of disagreements on where that funding could come from,” Mayo said. “Either way you cut it, that’s leaving a hole in the budget somewhere, and there’s still this disagreement on where that hole should be.”So far, impacts in Wayne and Pike have been limited. “In general, the people we talked to said that they either haven’t sort of felt these missed payments yet or they have enough money in reserve to weather a couple of missed payments or both,” Mayo reported.Pike County Commissioner Matt Osterberg told The River Reporter there had been concern that the Carbon Monroe Pike Drug and Alcohol Commission could be unable to provide services, but opioid settlement funds have been used to bridge the gap. Still, Osterberg said, “This is basically politics and I think it’s a shame that political disagreements can cause such havoc on the local level. This is always disruptive to an entire community when they do this.”Wallenpaupack Area School District Superintendent Keith Ganassi told The River Reporter the district “has not been negatively affected at this time,” noting that...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/q7XXsnSXT_u4mZLCn3chUorwDmUD_kWiB272D6emB18/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS80N2Uy/OGY5MWUwZThkYTEw/NDVkZGM2ZGZkZDIw/ZjliOS5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}