The social service agency PATH in Bloomington Normal will be able to keep its doors open for a few months in spite of the ongoing budget stalemate. Karen Zangerle directs Providing Access To Help.
PATH runs a state mandated unit that investigates elder abuse and neglect. Except the state hasn't been paying on its contract. Zangerle had been worried about making payroll this month. But, she says PATH has now secured a line of credit at a reasonable interest rate from CEFCU and the state Comptroller's office has agreed to release about $50,000, or less than a quarter of what the state owes.
Zangerle says she's relieved, but not carefree. Workers have been without on call pay and mileage reimbursement for months. She says they can now catch up on bills that are more than three months old and make payroll for a few more months.
Zangerle says she was even desperate enough to look at loans from places that wanted to charge 40% interest. She says CEFCU was at a regular commercial rate, though not many regular banks were interested in floating PATH cash to make it through the crisis.
Many social service agencies have signed state contracts, but have received no money since the end of May.
