PINE BUSH – Saying "New York State is facing an inevitable, fiscal reckoning," Governor David Paterson unveiled his budget plan for the coming year on Tuesday, January 19. The $134 billion budget must bridge a projected deficit of $7.8 billion. To do that, Paterson unleashed cuts in school aid, health care, payments to municipalities, and funds for state agencies. He also produced new tax surcharges on soda and sugared drinks in general, plus cigarette sales on Indian reservations.

Your School's Aid Cut School District $ Dollar Change % Change Ellenville -1,072,380 -6.45 Pine Bush -5,134,519 -10.6 Rondout Valley -1,174,178 -5.97 Monticello -1,969,250 -6.81 Tri-Valley -800,710 -9.07 New Paltz -890,494 -7.08 Wallkill -2,221,406 -8.71

For school districts in the Hudson Valley, there was plenty of pain to go around. But for Pine Bush the proposed cuts are disastrous. Total state aid projected by Paterson's proposal would only be $43,299,500. (Last year it was $51,740,014.)

Superintendent Phil Steinberg was in the middle of an endless round of meetings and number-crunching sessions on Wednesday, but he paused long enough to say, "These cuts are draconian, and as presented they would completely devastate our instruction program, our administrative staff and, of course, our teaching staff."

The Pine Bush School District was already facing a $4 million deficit produced by increased contractual expenses and a decline in certain revenues.

The end result? "I'm looking at a $9 million shortfall," says Steinberg. "I cannot make that up all from cuts, so I have to use the fund balance. But once that's gone, it's gone, and if we have an emergency, then what do we do? Wait for money to arrive from Albany?

"The governor has really shown that he just does not understand how the education system in our state is funded. He seems to be completely detached from the reality of how the system works."

Steinberg comes back to the fund balance, the "rainy day" money districts need for that awful moment when a boiler must be replaced, fast, in the middle of January. "The governor took into account the fund balance; he's making us spend it. But he completely disregarded what huge cuts will do to our instructional program."

Steinberg is aware that the governor's proposals are not the actual budget, and that there will be much fighting over numbers before a final budget is completed. But school districts have to use the governor's projections as their baseline, meaning an incredible amount of work for the administrations of every district in the state, with no guarantee that these projected cuts don't wind up being very real.

"Believe me, we will be looking at every item and every line of expenditure, and cutting anything that we possibly can. We will also be looking for revenue." Steinberg pauses for breath and digs deep for optimism. "Somehow, we are going to do this, and we will have a program in the end that will continue to educate our students to the best possible degree."

And if a $9 million shortfall wasn't headache enough, the Pine Bush teachers' contract is up in June, and so negotiations will begin on the next one.

Steinberg is philosophical about that part of the problem. "Let's look at all this as an opportunity to be positive, and to come up with ways of reducing the district's expenditures. That's the best thing we can do right now for the children."

Up next will be four public budget forums, beginning Monday, February 8, at 6 p.m. in the Pakanasink Elementary School cafeteria.

The others will be: Wednesday, February 10, at Circleville Middle School Auditorium at 6 pm; Monday, March 1, at Pine Bush Elementary School Cafeteria at 6 p.m.; and Wednesday, March 10 2010, at Crispell Middle School Cafeteria at 7:30 p.m.