Montco to Participate in Block Grant Program

from the inbox:

The Montgomery County Commissioners last week voted to have the county participate in Pennsylvania’s Human Services Block Grant Program should the program be expanded to allow more counties to participate.

The pilot program established in the 2012 fiscal year by the Corbett Administration provided funding from the Department of Public Welfare to the counties in the form of block grants, instead of providing it in specific categories.  The program, which initially had a limit of 20 counties participating, was designed to give counties more flexibility on how to allocate human services funding.

After observing the program for a year, Montgomery County officials decided that the program does, in fact, provide greater flexibility to allocate funds, something that is important to the county because of the new Community Connections outreach program it is about to launch.  While the block grant program is now capped at 20 county participants, pending legislation in Harrisburg, supported by Gov. Corbett, would open the program up to all counties.