Nearly 200 Northampton County workers could be furloughed starting next month because state lawmakers are months late on passing a budget.

Rank-and-file human services staff, including child welfare caseworkers, mental health crisis workers and aging services workers, will be furloughed Oct. 20 if no state budget is passed, according to SEIU Local 668, which represents county human services workers.

Their work provides mandated services, including child protection, aging services and behavioral health, according to SEIU, adding interruptions “could endanger lives.”

In a statement, county Executive Lamont G. McClure acknowledged notices have gone out to 175 Human Services union workers that they could face furloughs “as an option of last resort.”

“This is not a decision we take lightly,” McClure said. “Our employees are dedicated public servants, and the services they provide safeguard the health, safety, and well-being of thousands of county residents. However, it is the state’s responsibility to fund these programs, and their inaction has placed our residents and workforce in jeopardy.”

The union plans to hold a news conference at noon Friday to call on McClure to stop any furloughs. The union also demands that state lawmakers pass a 2026 state budget, which is nearly three months late.

McClure, a Democrat, blamed the Republican-controlled state Senate for the budget impasse. He said since July, the county has used its own funds to keep Human Services and other state-supported programs running. The county has not received $10.4 million thus far from the state and, if a budget is not enacted by Dec. 31, the county could lose approximately $30.5 million, he said.

“Northampton County taxpayers have already paid their state taxes,” McClure said. “To demand that they pay again through county taxes, particularly by forcing the County to consider loans that will accrue interest we can never recoup, is unconscionable.”

McClure has other choices, including pursuing “alternative strategies” that that include commingling funds from the county’s other budget sources or offering “share sacrifice” among staff, according to Steve Catanese, Local 668 president.

The union also said a “twin crises” of local furloughs and state-level gridlock are destabilizing front-line services. The situation locally and in Harrisburg also comes against a backdrop of growing financial uncertainty in Washington, where federal gridlock threatens to further weaken community safety nets, according to the union.

Lehigh County is not taking steps to release any workers, General Services Director Rick Molchany said.

“We are not planning furloughs as a reaction to the cash-flow issue with the state not supplying us with the necessary funding,” he said. “We are looking at the opportunity to have a bridge loan that would allow us to manage the cash flow until the state coffers are released.”

Speakers at the union news conference, scheduled for outside the county’s Human Services Building in Bethlehem Township, will call on “extremist legislators” in Harrisburg to end their obstruction and pass a fair state budget. The deadline to pass the state budget was June 30.

This is a developing story; check back for updates.

Contact Morning Call reporter Anthony Salamone at asalamone@mcall.com.

https://www.mcall.com/2025/09/25/northampton-county-furloughs/