Schoharie County schools stand to lose some $1.8 million in state aid if Governor David Paterson’s call for mid-year cuts goes through.
And they won’t be the only ones.
Also struggling to make sense of the Governor’s proposal for $5.2 billion in cuts over the next two years are: The Community Library, the Tri-County Arts Council, Cobleskill Regional Hospital, and SUNY Cobleskill.
“The Governor’s cuts would take us back to 1998 levels,” said Christine Dickerson, director of The Community Library.
“That’s especially ironic considering that in tough economic times, people traditionally use libraries more.”
Unveiled just seven days ago, Governor Paterson himself called the plan “a series of difficult choices across virtually every area of state spending,” all part of an effort to eliminate a $1.5 billion budget shortfall.
While Schoharie Central School is the only local school looking at a cut in aid over 2007-08, all of the others are facing a mid-year decrease in what they were promised.
“We’ve already sent out our tax bills, [based on the first figures]” said Sharon Springs Central School Business Manager Tony DiPace.
“We’ve done our budgeting…our hiring. The fact that this comes mid-year…Do we act now? Do we wait? We’re really at a loss.”
For libraries, slated for some $20 million in cuts, the pinch will come in services provided by the Mohawk Valley Library System, Ms. Dickerson said: Inter-library loans, summer reading programs, and construction grants among them.
“The first thing I thought was, ‘Oh, my God, the roof,’” Ms. Dickerson said. “And this is just this year. We’re hearing there could be more substantial cuts in ’09.”
In an emergency session, legislators returned to Albany Monday to try to close the budget gap.
Though he said he supports the need to cut spending, State Senator Jim Seward said he can’t go along with shifting the burden to taxpayers.
“Mid-year cuts to schools would be disastrous,” he said. “We need mandate relief and other options…
“Cuts to Medicaid must also be examined closely. We need to get to the root of the problem, rather than playing a shell game that leaves our hospitals and nursing homes holding the bag.”
Eric Stein, president and CEO at Cobleskill Regional Hospital, said they’re slated to lose $190,000 over the next two years in state and federal Medicaid payments.
What’s more, CRH has more Medicaid patients “in part brought on by the recession,” Mr. Stein said.
CRH is just finishing its 2009 budget, Mr. Stein said, “and it’s the toughest I’ve had since I’ve been here,” even as he expects ’09 to increase in expenses—but not patients.
“It will be pretty close to break even, So if you cut $190,000, for a small hospital, that gets your attention.”
In the end, Mr. Stein believes the total cut will be “something less than $190,000,” but whatever it is, it will come on top of $1 billion in health care cuts the state already made in April and August.
“These are tough times, but we’ll get through it.”
Also on the table are some $7 million in cuts to the State Council on the Arts.
Mark Eamer, executive director of the Tri-County Arts Council, said his organization stands to lose the $55,000 it “re-grants” to individual artists and for things like Arts in the Parks in several communities.
Like the Community Library, TCAC’s construction application for funding for building renovations is also in jeopardy.
“All of this is on top of a six percent cut that came in September,” Mr. Eamer said.
“The arts are not a waste. We fund about 110 events and they all generate important money for the local economy. If I can’t keep my building open, I don’t know what will happen.”

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Times-Journal Publisher Jim Poole contributed to this story.
Related coverage of the cuts' impacts on education is inside.