Officials from social service agencies and school districts in Butler County reacted positively to the news that state funding would be forthcoming. However, that was tempered by uncertainty over exactly when they could begin getting the money.

That money is coming because Gov. Tom Wolf on Tuesday agreed to release six months’ worth of emergency funds for schools and more than $9 billion for human services.

In the county’s human services department, state funding pays for many of its services. The county has contracts with 100 entities for 20,000 clients.

Without the state money coming in, the county has told its contractors to get lines of credit and use reserve funds to help stay afloat. Additionally, the county has given more than $1.5 million from its general fund to help contractors who have exhausted all of their possibilities.

County Commissioner Bill McCarrier, board chairman, said it would be good to get state funding again.

“I think he owes our county human services something like $10 million,” McCarrier said of the governor.

However, McCarrier said it was not clear how much money might come in and it is not clear what “emergency” funding actually entails.

“He needs to define that,” McCarrier said.

Mike Robb, executive director of the Center for Community Resources and the Alliance for Nonprofit Resources, which have contracts with the county, said it’s good that funding will be released, but noted that how much and when seems to be up in the air for now.

“It’s still kind of nebulous,” Robb said. “I think we’re all excited that there’s some movement.”

He said about $1.7 million in state money is owed to the nonprofits he runs.

Since the state money stopped coming in, they have been using reserve funds and lines of credit. Robb said these monies can keep an organization operating, but not to full capacity.

Mars School Board President Dayle Ferguson said she is pleased that Wolf is releasing emergency funds to school districts.

“Quite frankly, that action should have been taken long before now,” Ferguson said. “It’s wrong to play politics with students and their educations.”

Ferguson said because of careful management, Mars should be self-sufficient until spring. She said Mars is not forced to lean heavily on state reimbursement for its budget.

“We budget and manage conservatively based on what can be sustained with our traditional revenue mix, which is heavily dependent on local sources,” she said.

Butler School District Superintendent Dale Lumley said an actual state budget would have been “much more preferable” to any emergency funding. While the district has an agreement that allows it to borrow up to $16 million from First National Bank, it will not need that until February, he said.

“We were certainly hoping a budget would be passed,” Lumley said, stressing that any information about how the emergency funding works would probably not be released until next year.

Butler’s bus service may soon have to apply for a line of credit to cover operational costs, according to John Paul, executive director of the Butler Transit Authority.

“It’s something we may have to look at after the first of the year,” Paul said. “We don’t want to do that because obviously it’ll cost money.”

Paul said the authority actually has received its state funding for the year, but said it cannot receive its federal money until the state’s budget is passed.

The authority’s budget is just under $2 million. It is set to get about $700,000 in federal funding, Paul said.

While the authority may have to borrow money if the state budget isn’t soon passed, Paul said there is no threat of the bus service shutting down.

Eagle staff writers John Bojarski, Will DeShong, Paula Grubbs and Amanda Spadaro contributed to this report.