GLOVERSVILLE - Most local superintendents and municipal officials agree Gov. David Paterson's decision to postpone aid payments indefinitely are manageable now but may not be in the near future.
School districts and municipalities across the state saw a 10 percent reduction in the state-aid payments they were expecting in December. For some districts, that amounts to just a few thousand dollars. For others, the amount delayed is more than $300,000.
In the Gloversville Enlarged School District, officials received $307,000 less than expected in December. It's a delay the district will be able to handle for now, Superintendent Robert DeLilli said.
"In our planning for 2009-10, we built our budget expecting this because [Paterson] had been saying the same thing last year," he said. "I'm not sneezing at [the delay], but it's something we can manage at this point in time."
If more delays occur, or if Paterson defers the payments altogether, that will create a different set of problems, DeLilli said.
"We would be looking at a million less to operate the district," he said. "If this delay or reduction becomes a repetitive theme, we will have to tap into the fund balance."
The reduction is more dire in the Canajoharie Central School District, where Superintendent Dick Rose said if the district does not receive the delayed payment by February, the district will have to take out a revenue anticipatory note to cover its bills.
"It will create a cash-flow problem for us," he said. "If it became permanent, it wouldn't be just a cash-flow problem. It would be a book-balancing problem."
In the Fort Plain Central School District, a delay of about $92,000 caused Superintendent Douglas Burton to institute a spending freeze.
Burton froze all accounts effective Dec. 17. Any funds that had not been encumbered by that date are not available. New spending requests will require special authorization before they are processed by the business office, Fort Plain officials said in a news release.
Northville Central School District Superintendent Kathy Dougherty said her district can handle the 10 percent decrease but is concerned about a $32,000 delay from the Hudson River-Black River Regulating District's inability to pay its school taxes.
"The timing of this and the way it's being communicated is difficult," she said. "We're getting e-mails from [the state Board of Education] saying we'll have our check tomorrow and by the way, it will be thousands short. We take our responsibility to our taxpayers very seriously and to have the governor arbitrarily decide that because we have a reserve we can handle [a delay] is not pleasurable."
Mayfield Central School District Superintendent Paul Williamsen agreed. He said his district's delay of about $3,000 is small compared to many other districts' cuts.
"My bigger concern is midyear cuts. Going forward [with our budget planning], we came to the taxpayers with one expectation and now things have changed," he said. "It's a concern. It's hanging over our heads."
State Sen. Hugh T. Farley, R-Niskayuna, placed the blame for the delays squarely on Paterson's shoulders. He said despite the Legislature only cutting $2.8 billion of the governor's requested $3.2 billion, it's Paterson's responsibility to make further cuts.
"It's his responsibility to prepare the budget," he said. "He could have cut agencies, frozen jobs. He kept calling us back [into special session] but never presented any bills. He was determined to cut [aid to] schools and municipalities."
In Gloversville, Finance Commissioner Bruce Van Genderen said the city experienced a delay of $242,000 in state aid.
"What this will do is speed up the time table for us," he said. "I will have to borrow money in mid-January."
Van Genderen said what is more concerning are indications that state aid in 2010 will be even less than what it was in 2008. He said he expects to take $142,000 out of the revenue account in the 2010 budget, creating an even larger gap for the Common Council to close. With the additional $142,000 loss Van Genderen is predicting, the budget gap amounts to nearly $2 million. Common Council members have discussed possible job cuts but have not taken any steps to close the budget gap since early December.
Johnstown Mayor Sarah Slingerland said her municipality and others across the state are in "wait-and-see" mode. Johnstown experienced a $136,000 delay in payments.
"It becomes difficult because it's a lean and tight budget to begin with, so there isn't a lot of room for unexpected expenditures," she said.
Fulton County Board of Supervisors Chairman John Callery sent a letter to Paterson protesting the cuts. About $109,000 was withheld from Fulton County's expected state aid payment for child welfare services.
"There is not justification for ordering services to be provided by county government, then refusing to pay for those services," he wrote. "The citizens of New York have been let down by the state's elected officials, and now you have chosen to drag down local governments to the edge of the abyss with you."
Kayleigh Karutis covers Gloversville news. She can be reached at gloversville@leaderherald.com.