A recent study by Pathways PA found that 34% of the population of Lancaster County earns less than is required to be self-sufficient here. We can begin to address that by demanding that the 25-year-old funding formula that decides how many of the tax dollars we send to Harrisburg are returned to us for government-run public assistance programs. Under the current formula we receive much less than we should relative to our current population and contribution to the State tax base.
For example we are 48% under-funded for youth services and the Office of Aging; 52% under-funded for mental health; 38% for Human Services et al. Lancaster County is struggling to fund these necessary services, and we currently are facing funding cuts rather than the increases we'd receive if the funding formula reflected the realities of 2010 rather than the realities of 1985.