Here’s the official letter from Katherine P. Attwood, D.O.E. Assistant Commissioner of Finance, explaining what school districts in New Jersey should do in light of Corzine’s deferral of June state aid payments. Not to worry: Attwood explains that districts don’t need to change their 2008-2009 budgets in spite of the shortfall, because N.J.S.A. 18:22-44.2 says that if a State payment is not made til the next school budget year, schools can still count the non-payments “as revenue for budget purposes in the current school budget year.”

Phew. Glad that’s cleared up. We don’t get the money but our budgets need not reflect that piece of trivia. Attwood goes on to concede that the delay “may require more districts to borrow for cash flow needs” but the D.O.E. will let us know when the payment will actually show up as soon as they find out: “as soon as it is determined, we will immediately let districts know.”

Meanwhile, some districts will have to take out bank loans to cover the necessities and our new fiscal accountability regulations will, with the help of the State Legislature, be amended right away to facilitate new debt.