PA Treasury: Despite Flood-Related Office Closures, Citizens Awaiting Millions from State Will Receive Payments On Time

Treasury’s operational improvements enabled timely payments of more than $200 million for Pennsylvanians when emergency incidents arose

Harrisburg, PA, Sept, 9, 2011– State Treasurer Rob McCord today assured Pennsylvanians awaiting $200 million from the Commonwealth that those payments should arrive on time – despite state government offices in Pennsylvania’s capital city being closed yesterday and today as the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee created near-record flood conditions throughout the mid-state region. 

“This week, hundreds of brave individuals helped keep Pennsylvanians safe as waters across the state rose to record or near-record levels,” said Treasurer McCord. “Those emergency response personnel are the real heroes of this ordeal. Our job at Treasury is to ensure state payments are made on time, even with extraordinary challenges. Treasury’s contingency planning – and the many dedicated Treasury staff who worked despite the office closure – made this possible, so now, people awaiting payments should not experience any storm-related delay.”

Treasurer McCord said Treasury has improved its capacity in recent years to process critical payments remotely and securely during emergencies, so the Commonwealth’s financial operations experience a minimal degree of disruption. Yesterday and today, the department’s staff processed approximately 20,000 payments and printed checks for – among other things – more than 5,000 personal income tax refunds as well as people receiving Social Security and Women, Infants and Children program benefits.

Each year, Treasury processes about 70 million payments worth more than $70 billion.

The Treasurer thanked his staff for work under extraordinary conditions and also noted his independent agency’s steps to minimize the flood’s effect on other programs. For example, Treasury augmented call center operations for the Unclaimed Property Program to ensure no interruption in customer service.

For more information about the Pennsylvania Treasury Department, visit www.patreasury.org.

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Media contact: Michael Smith, 717-787-2991 or news@patreasury.org

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