When the state budget is late, Pennsylvania’s 67 counties have to pick up the tab on local programs—especially human service costs.

Pennsylvania’s new fiscal year started July 1st, but with no official budget signed into law, state funding is frozen. County commissioners say that so far, with the 10 day late budget, they are managing.

“So far, thankfully, there really have not been any significant impacts for Bradford County as a whole,” said Daryl Miller, chairman of the Bradford County Commissioners.

Finances start getting choppy the longer that funding stays frozen.

The daily needs of communities don’t stop. If counties want their social services available to citizens, they have to front the money that is missing from the state.

In Crawford County, around 30% of their budget goes to human services. And almost all of human services is state funded.

“It's a large chunk of money. So this is just not something that is trivial and easy for us to handle,” said Eric Henry, chairman of the Crawford County Commissioners.

If a state budget is over 30 days late, counties often have to spend their reserves or open a line of credit at a bank to cover next months expenses. Once a state budget is passed, those expenses get back filled. For counties with tighter margins or bad credits— the delay can cause significant issues.

Local non profits, who counties often contract with to provide human services, depend on government funds mixed with their fundraising and service revenues.

“When even a small piece of that puzzle is kind of delayed, it throws off everything,” said Justin Nesbitt, executive director for the Center for Family Services— a Meadville based non profit that offers parenting classes, food and housing resources, and more.

The non profit’s thrift store has several state funded workers that got hours cut on July 1st.

“It adds a lot of stress. A lot of uncertainty makes an already hard job even harder,” Nesbitt said.

As state lawmakers argue over $47 billion in tax revenue—the local communities depending on those funds are scraping by month to month. Commissioners say they want the final state budget to be done right, but also stress that time is of the essence.

“Commissioners are required to pass a budget by the end of the year, and if we don’t, we are failing our obligation,” Henry said. "I would just ask all those representatives and the state government to follow through on their own requirements.”

Because of a lawsuit in 2015, state workers still get paid even with late budgets. Government work continuing as normal in Harrisburg reduces immediate pressure on lawmakers to follow through with their legal obligation.