State reimburses most of $1M costs

The county is still seeking reimbursement for its previous voting machines.
By MARY GRZEBIENIAK
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
MERCER, Pa. -- Mercer County Commissioner Michele Brooks said Mercer County received $877,448 in checks from the state last week as reimbursement for recently purchased electronic voting machines and associated election costs.
She said at Tuesday's chief clerk's meeting the county is still waiting for $159,753 in additional reimbursements.
The reimbursements will help pay for the new machines purchased early this year and for continuing voter education on how to use them as well as handicapped accessibility at polling places, which is 98 percent complete.
The county, however, is still in limbo on whether it will recoup the costs for the now defunct Unilect electronic voting machines, which the county is warehousing.
The state decertified those machines, which were only a few years old, in effect forbidding them from being used in Pennsylvania elections.
When a previous board of commissioners bought the Unilect machines for nearly $1 million, the county had been promised a large percentage of the cost would be reimbursed through federal Help America Vote funds.
The decertification has made the reimbursement uncertain, however.
The county also is pursuing reimbursement in the courts, having recently sued Unilect to recoup its purchase cost. No hearings are set in that case.
Delinquent-treatment dispute
Also, Commissioner Olivia Lazor said a dispute between state and federal welfare authorities might jeopardize $800,000 in reimbursements to the county for the coming fiscal year for treatment of juvenile delinquents in the court system.
The county is mandated to provide treatment for the offenders and is usually reimbursed by the state for the costs.
Lazor, however, said a disagreement between the Pennsylvania Department of Welfare and the U.S. Department of Children and Families over the Title 4-E funds has jeopardized $137.8 million for Pennsylvania counties to use in treatment of juveniles.
Counties are asking Pennsylvania to tap into a $170 million contingency fund to help with a shortfall in reimbursement if the federal governments persists in refusing to give the funds to Pennsylvania.
Because counties are federally mandated to provide these services, Mercer County could be forced to come up with the anticipated $800,000 cost for the services for the coming fiscal year, which begins Saturday.
Commissioners also agreed to remove Brooks as liaison to the Office of Registration and Elections to avoid any potential conflict of interest because she will be on the November ballot seeking election as 17th District state representative. Lazor agreed to serve as the liaison in Brooks' place.
The liaison serves to foster communication between the elections office and the commissioners.