Allegheny County and officials elsewhere want state to pay for budget impasse costs

HARRISBURG — Outside the state Capitol, entities that rely on state funding lost a lot of their own money because lawmakers and the governor who work inside the Capitol were 135 days late with a state budget.

Now, a month after the budget deal was finally struck, questions persist about whether the state should pay that money back.

Losses for the 67 counties collectively are not known but may have been as high as “the tens of millions of dollars range,” according to Kyle Kopko, executive director of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania. Allegheny County already has billed the state for more than $1 million in “lost investment income,” a spokesperson said. School districts — possibly the most shortchanged category during the July 1 - Nov. 12 stretch without a budget — don’