04/14/2007

Districts face further cuts amid budget stalemate

By CHRISTINE FINGER

cfinger@record-eagle.com

and SHERI McWHIRTER

smcwhirter@record-eagle.com

TRAVERSE CITY — Northern Michigan school districts could lose thousands of dollars in state aid if legislators remain deadlocked on a solution to the state's budget woes.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm is prepared to cut funding by $90 to $125 per student on May 1 if the budget crisis continues, state budget director Robert Emerson warned in a letter sent on Thursday to school officials.

Districts were slated to receive a minimum of $7,085 per student in the fiscal year that ends June 30.

Some school superintendents said there's no way to make the budget cuts balance out this year.

Jeff Liedel leads Vanderbilt Area Schools, where a $125-per-pupil cut would slash $27,500 from the district's $1.9 million annual budget.

"We really can't do any layoffs at this point, six weeks from the end of the year. So it basically will just be added to our deficit. Next year we'll have to find a way to make more cuts, whether that's our music program or another teacher,” Liedel said.

Emerson wrote that the late-year cuts would have a "devastating budgetary effect” on schools and encouraged district officials to lobby legislators to find another fix.

Projections show a $377 million deficit in the state's school aid fund for the current fiscal year that ends Sept. 30. The state will hold another revenue estimating conference in May, and Emerson predicted the shortfall will be greater than expected.

Mike Murray, superintendent of Suttons Bay Public Schools, said the legislative gridlock will cost districts.

"Any good financial manager has already set aside funds for this, but it makes planning difficult and destroys morale,” Murray said. "We're already trying to do more with the minimum amount of money. Now we have to set aside extra because we're not even sure we will have the minimum amount.”

The latest state funding cut would cost the Crawford-Au Sable School District more than $238,000, which will be heaped into an existing $250,000 deficit tally, said Superintendent Joe Powers, who placed the blame squarely on state lawmakers.

"We have another year the state cannot fund schools at the level they determined. It's Lansing's responsibility to find the funding and they are unable to do so,” he said. "It's an example of the structural deficit problems in our state and it needs to be fixed. Democrats, Republicans, it doesn't matter. It needs to be fixed.”