BELLEFONTE — Some Centre County departments may be forced to stretch their wallets and rethink how they deliver federally mandated services as dual budget crises at the state and federal levels puts added pressure on local government.

“As we begin to prepare our budgets for the upcoming year, we are already considering how to be incredibly intentional with how we spend every dollar to maximize our impact without sacrificing the quality of our services,” a county spokesperson said in a statement to The Express.

Centre County officials said the impact of the federal government shutdown is hard to quantify, since most federal funding comes through the state rather than directly to the county.

“The indirect effect of the federal government shutdown is that many of our departments — especially the human service departments — have to be more creative and stringent with how they use their money to deliver services, many of which are federally mandated,” Centre County said.

In August, the county moved ahead with a $7.9 million flexible funding package to fund its human services programs in light of the ongoing state budget impasse.

Without a finalized state budget, county administrators lack a clear picture of the exact funding they will receive for the upcoming year and are not receiving the state dollars typically used to pay for human services.

Centre County Commissioner Mark Higgins said in August he was aware of at least one county in Pennsylvania that had already begun defaulting on its bills because of the impasse.

“Here in Centre County we’re in a better financial place,” Higgins said. “At least in the short term, Centre County will continue to pay its bills.”

Higgins also noted in August that during the 2015-16 budget crisis the county was able to maintain services through early January without state funding. Since this year’s budget delay is not expected to stretch that long, commissioners expressed confidence in their ability to continue operations without disruption.

In the unlikely event of a financial triage situation, Higgins said the county would work closely with employees, nonprofits and other partners to determine who could temporarily defer their payments. If necessary, the county could also borrow tens of millions of dollars to maintain operations.

Commissioner Steve Dershem noted at the time that during previous budget crises, the state has historically provided stopgap funding to help counties maintain essential services, which could offer additional support this time as well.

With eight of the past 10 state budgets this decade delayed, “We are battle tested in this regard,” Dershem said.