On October 19, Governor Rendell with State Treasurer Rob McCord and Budget Secretary Soderberg announced that the state has made approximatelty 3 billion dollars worth of payments to counties, school districts, and social service providers.

 

The Governor indicated that $225 million for child welfare, $122 million for childcare services, and $1.5 billion for basic and special education were among high priority payments that had been processed.

 

The Governor said that all but a handful of priority payments were yet to be made. Budget Secretary Soderberg followed that comment by saying payments that have yet to be processed are due to contracts that were not finalized before the budget or situations were the budget had to be passed before specific formulas could be run. She went on to explain that Medical Assistance Transportation and various payments to DCNR are examples of formula situations.

 

Governor Rendell also replied to a reporter on the issue of interest incurred by organizations that had taken out loans. He said that he will reexamine the issue once a total figure is produced by his staff.   

 

To Track Payments the Pennsylvania Treasury has created a payment tracking website at http://www.patreasury.org/payments.html.

 

Also for further information on funding allocations reference the CCAP Commonwealth Budget Page