HARRISBURG, Pa., Oct. 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Governor Edward G. Rendell and Treasurer Rob McCord today announced that the commonwealth has achieved its goal of expediting payments that had been delayed by the budget impasse, including crucial social services and education funding.
"When the budget was enacted Oct. 9, a key question was how soon we would make the goods and services payments that had been delayed by the budget impasse," the Governor said. "Our plan was to pay approximately $3 billion in invoices in the week following budget enactment. I am happy to report that, between budget enactment and today, we will have made payments of $3 billion.
"Since Oct. 9, we have made nearly 8,000 payments that had been delayed by the impasse, focusing first on high-priority items such as basic education, special education, child care services, child care welfare, the Children's
Health Insurance Program, Pre-K Counts and Head Start," he said. "We have now processed all but a handful of the disbursements delayed by the budget impasse. We are also expediting those remaining payments."
High-priority payments included $1.5 billion for basic education, special education, accountability grants and other education services; $225 million for child care welfare to 275 recipients; $122 million for child care services to 69 recipients; and $27 million for Pre-K Counts to 155 recipients, the Governor said.
"It was our goal that all money delayed by the budget impasse would be paid within 10 business days of my signing the budget, with the highest-priority payments made four to six business days after I signed it," he said.
"We were able to make all priority payments within four business days after the budget passed, and we returned to normal processing of invoices on Oct. 16. We more than met our goals, thanks to the hard work, dedication and coordination of staff in the Office of the Budget, the Office of Administration and the state Treasury."
"The women and men of Treasury were proud to work nights and weekends to help get these needed funds out the door fast," said McCord. "There was a deep need for speed. If ever there was a time when 'the check is in the mail' had to be true -- this was it. And thanks to the efforts of Treasury's dedicated employees, we met that need."
The Governor explained that, in anticipation of budget enactment, the staff of the Office of the Budget worked closely with the Treasurer's office to identify and prioritize payments that were delayed as a result of the budget impasse.
Immediately after the Governor signed the budget the evening of Oct. 9, Budget Secretary Mary Soderberg transmitted the official expenditure notifications to the Treasury. The Office of the Budget's comptroller operations division began sending invoices for processing by Treasury that night and continued to work through that weekend.
On Tuesday morning, Oct. 13, the Treasury began to cut checks and made arrangements for electronic fund transfers that began on Wednesday, Oct. 14. By the end of that day, $2.4 billion in payments had been made. As of today, the state has made payments of more than $3 billion.