Lower Merion Anticipates Minimal Effects of Federal Government Shutdown

Federal, state, and local. That’s the hierarchical pecking order in terms of branches of government and the size of their budgets.

But as the saying goes, all politics are local. To that end, elected officials in Washington are keenly aware of their constituents’ concerns caused by a possible federal government shutdown tonight at midnight. The budget impasse could affect everything from shuttered local congressional offices to state college operations and right down to municipal sidewalk repairs.

“We’re still hopeful that things will be resolved,” said Kori Walter, district director for U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach, Friday afternoon.

The good news for residents of Lower Merion Township? In the short-term, at least, the federal government going dark would likely have very little impact.

“We do obviously get Federal funding, but it’s not critical that we get [it] daily,” said Dean Dortone, Lower Merion’s chief financial officer, reached at his office Friday morning. “So in the very short-term, I don’t think it will have a significant impact on our operations.”

“It definitely takes a while for things to filter down to impact the local level,” said Brenda Viola, the township’s public information officer.

Longer term – or even intermediate-term – Dortone said he’d have to think it through, and re-evaluate matters. About $1 million of the township’s budget comes through the federal government’s Community Development Block Grant program. “We spend those funds first, and then draw down on it,” Dortone explained. “We would still probably be able to do that.”

That program “has often been closer to the front of the line in being examined for options for budget cuts, and in some cases the budget has been reduced in this area,” said Lower Merion Township Manager Doug Cleland. “We’re always watching out for that, because the Commnunity Development Block Grant is a valuable program in Lower Merion and one that we've used for decades, and I’d like to see it continue.”

Close to half of the $1 million in Block Grants goes toward home rehabilitation work for low- to moderate-income eligible residents. The rest is allocated widely, Cleland said, among public services, administration, direct grants to outside social services agencies, curb and sidewalk repair, planning studies, and the like.  There are some 50 different allocations.

Coincidentally, a public hearing is scheduled for next Wednesday, April 13, to adopt the township’s budget proposal for those very Block Grant allocations. The township operates its overall budget on a calendar year basis, but the budget for the federal money must be structured on a fiscal year that begins on July 1.

Cleland, with the township for 26 years, said there have been shutdowns in the past–notably the most recent one, in 1996–and there were no major impacts locally.

Nationally, though, some 800,000 government workers stand to be furloughed as a result of the budgetary impasse. They would include most workers at the local district offices of members of both houses of Congress.

“It’s the kind of thing that when it happens, we will pay more attention to what kinds of things could begin to have impact,” Cleland said. “If this would happen and carry on into next week, we’ll check to see if there would be anything, but I can’t think of anything that would impact us specifically–either us or our citizens, as it relates to the services we provide.”

In the case of a national shutdown of the government, Lower Merion’s overall wealth is an asset that can’t be overstated.

“We don’t have a cash-flow position in this township where money would arrive one day, or one week apart, where it would have impact,” Cleland said. “We’re not waiting to pay bills or get cash, or things like that.”

That said, Cleland said he didn’t wish to appear cavalier about the situation.

“Obviously a federal shutdown” is a serious concern, he added. “If we get into it, we’ll be more alert to what perhaps some of the effects will be.”

Dortone concurred, and said the longer the impasse drags on, the more uncertainty there would be at every level of government.

“Here we are, living by the hour, trying to figure out what the federal government is going to do, and what things we have to take into consideration,” Dortone said. “Luckily, most of our operations are funded by funds held by the township.”