Two school districts in Butler County are considering borrowing money to help cover the shortfall caused by the state legislature’s failure to pass a budget.

As we learned in the Tuesday, Oct. 14, edition of the Butler Eagle, both Slippery Rock and Butler area school districts are considering taking out loans to cover their financial obligations.

At its meeting Monday, the Slippery Rock school board voted 9-0 to have business manager Paul Cessar explore borrowing options so the district can meet its financial obligations. He estimated the district has already seen between $3 million and $4 million in missed payments from the state.

Butler, like Karns City School District, had already talked about borrowing. On Monday, Butler superintendent Brian White told the board things would get worse toward the end of the year.

“Fifty percent of the budget is not coming through, the state hasn’t passed it, we’re eventually going to end up with a cash flow problem, probably in January,” White said. “We’ll start that process with a banker in November so the board can execute in December.”

As the budget impasse drags on — it has been 109 days as of Friday — more and more districts will need to borrow. White expressed the desperation many are feeling on Monday.

“It’s almost laughable, you may also want to cry, that the state budget has not passed,” White said. “We have no idea what the holdup is.”

We don’t either, and we’re not sure anyone in the legislature does, either. But we do know that lawmakers continued failure to do their jobs and pass a budget will just keep causing more pain the longer it drags on.

— JK