LANCASTER (TNS) — Despite state lawmakers’ insistence “a few weeks ago that a budget deal was as near as a few days away,” the Pennsylvania Senate and the House failed to convene in the state Capitol for a voting session during the week of Sept. 15, and a budget bill advanced by the House last week sat idle in a House committee.

Meanwhile, schools, counties and nonprofits — and the people they serve — are the ones suffering from the political gridlock.

Even so, last week was a busy one for state lawmakers, they just weren’t doing the people’s business — instead, they were taking care of their own interests.

Both Republican and Democratic caucuses in the Senate held golf outings at courses in the Pittsburgh area to benefit their campaign committees ahead of next year’s midterms. Each night saw House members of either party hosting campaign fundraising events. Those include a Democrat “End of Summer Party” in Bucks County and a Republican 2nd Amendment Shooting Classic, Pig Roast & Brew in Schuylkill County.

Parties and golf outings do strike us as a lot more entertaining than boring old legislative duties. And a pig roast with beer sure beats a day at the office. We, too, would like the luxury of shirking our work tasks.

Lawmakers get paid no matter how little they accomplish and how few days they actually spend at the state Capitol.

So we find it ironic when they talk about low-income people needing to work for government benefits such as basic food assistance and health care. Lawmakers get sizable salaries and excellent health care — and don’t need to prove their worthiness to get them.

But, hey, at least they know how to raise campaign funds, so they can continue feeding at the public trough, right?

To be clear, we respect public service. We’d just like to see lawmakers deliver more of it.

As lawmakers were socializing, public school district officials across the commonwealth were trying to figure out how long they can go without state funds before having to take out loans or cut important educational programs.

Those are tough decisions because it’s taxpayers who pay the interest on school district loans. And it’s children who suffer when programs are axed.

Lebanon School District, for instance, gets more than 70% of its budget from the state. Because of the state budget impasse, that district has had to pause in-school tutoring and all after-school programming, according to the news site LebTown.

In an LNP — LancasterOnline column published Sept. 14, School District of Lancaster Superintendent Keith Miles wrote that without a state budget, his district is “being forced to seek a $35 million line of credit just to keep schools operating and to ensure employees are paid on time. Those borrowed dollars come with interest and fees, money that could otherwise support teachers, counselors and essential classroom resources.”

The district has had to pause extended-day tutoring programs “that help struggling students catch up,” Miles continued. Payments to the district’s prekindergarten partners “have been delayed, disrupting organizations that serve our youngest learners. For families who rely on these services, the impact is real.”

And if “the budget delay continues,” he noted, “we may have to freeze even more spending.”

The state budget is now nearly 90 days overdue. You’d think that state lawmakers might feel some urgency and so might consider calling a truce on ideological battles. Now is not the time to insist on narrow partisan priorities. Now is the time to deliver a compromise budget that meets the essential needs of Pennsylvanians.

Kyle Kopko, executive director of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania, estimated that anywhere from one-quarter to one-third of the average county’s budget is funded with state dollars. Those funds have been frozen since the July 1 start of the commonwealth’s fiscal year.

Counties are required to provide children and youth services, drug and alcohol services, and mental and behavioral health services even when the state doesn’t provide the funding needed to keep programs afloat.

“October is going to be a tough month for the vast majority of counties,” Kopko warned.

Lancaster County commissioners recently issued a warning of their own: If the state budget isn’t approved by Oct. 1, they will need to make 60% partial payments to reimburse social-services providers.

As LNP — LancasterOnline reported, Lancaster County has been losing out on about $9 million in state payments a month since the budget impasse began, according to county Chief Clerk Larry George at the commissioners’ Sept. 16 work session.

Not surprisingly, Republican county Commissioners Josh Parsons and Ray D’Agostino blamed Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro for failing to unite the divided state Legislature.

It’s the lawmakers who need to come together on a compromise budget. But D’Agostino was right when he said this: “We need people to speak up because at some point these services could be in jeopardy, just simply because people can’t really do their job and come up with a state budget. That’s unacceptable.”

We’re such killjoys, right, asking lawmakers to do their jobs?

Maybe if legislative sessions featured beer and a pig roast, we wouldn’t have to ask.

— LNP, Lancaster via TNS