HARRISBURG, PA (WSKG) -- The state Auditor General is urging Governor Tom Wolf and the General Assembly to pump more money into the commonwealth's child welfare services.
In the wake of a report his office released on child welfare last year, Eugene DePasquale has been repeatedly calling the system "broken."
Now, he has issued his own series of recommendations for correcting a range of issues.
They include loosening regulations on data filing to make caseworkers' jobs easier, pumping $90 million into various programs and training, and having the state pay counties up-front to fill caseworker vacancies.
He acknowledged, a funding boost will be a hard sell in the spending-averse General Assembly.
"I'm just here to tell you that if it's important, they'll find it," he said. "The idea that they might feel a little pressure on this is not exactly something that's going to get me crying at night."
Human Services Secretary Teresa Miller said the administration mostly agrees with DePasquale's suggestions--though there are some concerns about changing how the state pays county offices.
"We've always had a state supervised, county-administered system," she said. "So, if we're funding everything, I think it just raises the question, do we still have that system?"
In DePasquale's initial report, he said one of the system's biggest problems is caseworkers who are under-trained and stretched too thin, which leads to a backlog of cases.
Headline corrected for editor error.