People testifying at Monday's House Policy Committee at Lycoming College claim budget cuts will adversely impact many agencies and programs and the people who depend on them for services.
Susquehanna Health, STEP Inc., school districts and Center for Independent Living are just some of the institutions feeling the crunch of less state funding.
Charles Santangelo, Susquehanna Health chief financial officer, testified that the total impact on the health system is more than $500,000, much of it due to Medical Assistance funding that fails to keep pace with increased costs incurred by the health system.
"The final analysis regarding the impact of the state budget on Susquehanna Health is not complete," he said. "It will take the entire fiscal year to fully determine how payments will be impacted."
Loyalsock Township School District Superintendent Robert Grantier said the budget will prove devastating to poor school districts.
Although Loyalsock receives less state aid than many poorer districts, it is feeling the crunch just the same.
For one, Loyalsock no longer will receive state money for charter or cyber schools attended by district residents.
And raising taxes to meet those extra costs is out of the question.
"I am not against online education," he said. "I believe in it. I think it has a role."
Rather, Grantier called on the committee to help find a better way for cyber and charter schools to be funded rather than hitting up districts for those costs.
State Rep. Scott Conklin, D-State College, said he's concerned how districts will fund their share of state pension obligations in coming years.
Grantier noted that at some point down the road consolidation of school districts will need to be seriously considered as a means of saving costs
State Rep. Mike Sturla, D-Lancaster, took a shot at Republican Gov. Tom Corbett, noting that Corbett campaigned to cut waste and fraud but once in office opted to slash dollars for such programs as education.
"We hope to get people today to think about the consequences of what is being cut," said state Rep. Rick Mirabito, D-Williamsport.
Sturla and Mirabito both said the cuts were pushed by the Republicans, who control both Houses, despite an $800 million budget surplus.
Anne M. Doerr, director of STEP Inc. Lycoming-Clinton Head Start, lamented the 100 percent cut in funding to the agency's Parent-Child Home Program, which serves some 80 2- and 3-year-olds of families challenged by poverty, limited education and other obstacles.
Jennifer Reeder, of the West Branch Drug & Alcohol Commission, said the agency's budget has been cut by 19 percent since 2004 despite a growing number of service members.
Those funding losses only place greater burdens on other agencies serving many of those people, she testified.
Karen Frock, of Creekside Creative Media, said she was concerned that state Department of Environmental Protection dollars have been slashed at a time when the Marcellus Shale industry is growing.
"We need to strengthen this agency," she said.
Renee Sluzalis, chief executive officer of Roads to Freedom, which operates a Center for Independent Living facility in Williamsport, said budget cuts hurt her agency's ability to better serve its disabled members.
The problem, she said, is the number of persons requiring services continues to grow at a time funding is being slashed.
Diane Glenwright, executive director at the Williamsport YWCA, noted that Liberty House, a shelter at the Y for women and children, was cut $9,000 in program funding.
However, Wise Options, a service providing assistance to victims of domestic, sexual and criminal violence, was spared any cuts.
Mirabito said now is not the time to fight each other over funding.
"We have to stand together," he said.
