While the debate over the state budget rolls on in Raleigh, most of the government work in Chatham is running normally.
Chatham County Manager Dan LaMontagne said the delay will likely affect “some” county programs, but not for a while if that.
“Sometimes there’s a little cushion in timing for when their funds are used and they get them,” he said.
The state budget debate has centered around Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s insistence on expanding Medicaid and the GOP leadership in the General Assembly’s unwillingness to do that. Because a spending plan was not passed by July 1, agencies that receive state funding — including public schools and county social services departments — are currently getting the same funding they got last year.
That’s led to no immediate problems for people like Jennie Kristiansen, the director of the Chatham County Department of Social Services.
“So at this point in time, there are no impacts to services being provided at DSS,” she said.
Kristiansen added that she didn’t anticipate any further delay to make a dent in the department’s operations.
A couple of agencies are keeping a closer eye on budget proceedings, particularly Chatham County Schools and the Chatham Council on Aging.
During last week’s Chatham County Board of Education meeting, the board discussed possibly expanding what had been a pilot program for composting across the district, but Superintendent Derrick Jordan warned that the projected cost — $15,000 to extend the pilot to five schools — might not be available right away.
“This is something that I believe that everybody is on board with, at least from an operational standpoint,” he said. “However, it’s an un-budgeted expense in terms of an expansion. I do think we’d have to find the dollar amount that could be absorbed within the existing budget with the plan of planning proactively and expanding in subsequent years.”
District Financial Officer Tony Messer told the News + Record that things are “business as usual as much as possible,” and that July and August, budget-wise, have been like the 14th and 15th month of the 2018-2019 school year.
What’s being held up is planning.
“We’re asked to accept students two weeks from today, and we just don’t have a definitive answer on what our actual funding is going to be,” Messer said. “Is money going to be there for teachers if needed? You have some grants that are out there, and if the grant is part of the state budget and hasn’t been approved, you don’t have authority to spend that money. The planning piece of it, trying to start the school year without a budget in place, is quite different than in the private sector.”
The district’s 2019-2020 budget showed state funding accounted for 57 percent of expenditures. As of now, Chatham County Schools is operating on the $54,125,330 from state sources they received last year, plus local and federal funding and other sources as expected.
Another concern Messer mentioned is a potential raise in the state employees retirement rate. If that goes up, more money will have to be paid into the retirement fund, but without something in place, the district sits in a bit of a holding pattern.
But those concerns will be more pronounced later in the year, Messer said.
“You’re always concerned when you’re operating without a budget, particularly because of the unknowns. As the school year approaches and begins, not having a state budget adds on to the complexities of what you have to do within the school year.”
Dennis Streets, the executive director of the Chatham Council on Aging, told the News + Record that the agency is waiting on two sets of funds.
The COA lost just more than $30,000 from its annual Triangle J Council of Governments allocation from last year to this year, and Streets said he hopes the state will help offset the loss with the Home and Community Care Block Grant. He said he’s not sure what’s going to happen with the funds, but the state House had proposed an increase.
Additionally, the council’s Senior Center General Purpose funds, in the total of $21,000, come from the State and, according to Streets, have not yet been released.
Reporter Zachary Horner can be reached at zhorner@chathamnr.com.