Chautauqua County’s representative in the New York State Assembly is calling the state’s fiscal scenario – which has already led the state budget office to withhold 20% of aid given to school districts– a “self inflicted” issue.

“Right from the beginning of the pandemic, (state Sen. George) Borrello (R-Sunset Bay) and I were urging the governor to act carefully in a way that reflected the unique situation in each region,” Assemblyman Andrew Goodell, R-Jamestown, told The Post-Journal, last week after receiving verification that the state division of budget has withheld $1.7 billion in payments statewide as of July 31.

“That includes $324.2 million in payments to school districts,” he said. “Unless they get more funding, they are projecting they will need to cut a total of $8.2 billion in aid to localities categories.”

Goodell said that the root of the cause was Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s upstate response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Unfortunately, the response initially started out as a one-size-fits-all,” he said. “As a result, Chautauqua County was shut down when there were no active cases in the county at all. My preference, as I stated to the governor right up front, was that we respond to the COVID crises in a careful, measured manner by region, recognizing that his very strong leadership was absolutely critical to saving lives in New York City. But, a different approach was appropriate upstate where the infection had not reached the general population.”

Now, the state is looking for a federal stimulus package to provide relief to localities. Cuomo is expected to submit an updated budget to the state legislature by the end of September at which point the state Senate and Assembly will have 10 days to approve an alternate plan.

Goodell said that he and Borrello “advised school boards and school administrators to develop their budget assuming that there was another 1.85 percent” that would be cut.

“The federal government provided billions of dollars nationwide specifically to help school districts, but the federal grant was conditioned on the state’s maintaining a certain level of funding,” Goodell said. “If the state cut funding below the threshold, specified in the federal law, the federal government could claw back or take back some of the federal aid. The purpose of that provision was to ensure that schools receive the federal aid and that states don’t intercept federal aid by reducing schools in a corresponding month.”

He added, “The state, in this year’s budget, reduced education aid from the state as much as it could by a couple billion to intercept as much of that federal aid as it could. We were under the opinion that the state aid could be cut another half a billion before it triggered the federal maintenance of effort. So far, the state has withheld $324 million and they could hold back another $180 million.”

Now, the “state’s revenues have dropped through the floor” and Goodell hopes that once the legislature is called back into session that he and his colleagues can figure out creative solutions to navigate through the financial crisis rather than a 20% cut in funding to localities.

“As we’re going into a fiscal crisis, the easiest approach is an across the board cut,” he said. “The best approach is a very careful, thoughtful economic analysis on what our priorities should be and need to be so that we can continue funding education, our critical social services programs, but in a way that makes it easier for people to become successful and builds the economy. … To cut everything by the same means each are of equal importance and that is simply not true.”

His recommendation would be to “prioritize spending cuts so that we don’t cut everything across the board.”

“In particular: our welfare spending is way above the national average our Medicaid spending, graduate medical education using tax dollars, transition that to a forgiveable loan,” Goodell said. “We give a $430 million dollar tax credit to Hollywood millionaires who make movies here. I would rather invest that money in basic education. We had in a budget over $50 million to upgrade a state-owned ski resort which has to be closed anyway because of COVID. It’s a lot of work to go through the budget, but that’s what we should do — reduce or eliminate.”

In the meantime, however, local school leaders are nervous. Each are clinging on to some form of hope that a federal stimulus package is delivered to the states by representatives in Congress — an added level of stress as they hope to safely welcome back students.

“Districts are really dependent upon congressional and senate leaders to provide a relief bill to states to assist with these losses of revenue,” Dr. David O’Rourke, District Superintendent and Chief Executive Officer of Erie-2 Chautauqua Cattaraugus BOCES, said. “Without that bill it looks as if schools will be facing significant program cuts. That’s a huge concern.”

“We have to continue to lobby and continue to be hoping,” Dunkirk City School District Superintendent Michael Mansfield said. “Our best hope is at the federal level is that there is some relief sent specifically to state for schools. One of the parts of this reopening is what a partnership this has to be to work: school district, parents, employers, child care agencies. We’re all going to have to really pull together to make this work and we’re asking that our community be patient for us. Working hard to make this happen for the same goal. People need answers and we’re working on getting them as soon as we can get them and get it accurately about our plans and what the impacts are of these financial constraints.”

“Our most valued and precious part of government is our kids and we have to figure this out,” Southwestern Central School District Superintendent Maureen Donahue said. “We have to be functioning as if a relief bill is going to get worked out. I’m not surprised but I’m disappointed and disheartened that we can’t figure this out on a federal level.”

Donahue added, “We need to stay calm. The biggest thing at this point is to stay calm, remain informed and do our best to educate our kids.”