County governments in the Mohawk Valley aren't the only ones worried about the state's 2 percent tax cap; education officials are too. As our Megan Cruz tells us, despite their frustrations, they're trying to make the dollars work for their students.

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JOHNSTOWN, N.Y. -- "With a $57 million a year budget, if you can only raise your taxes by 2 percent, for Amsterdam, that comes out to be $430,000."

Amsterdam Superintendent Tom Perillo is worried about paying for a good quality education for his 3,700 students.

"Our elective programs, some of those may have to go, class sizes in the elementary school, that may go up again," said Perillo.

All thanks to millions of dollars worth of cuts in state aid, and now, the 2 percent tax cap. BOCES Superintendent Dr. Patrick Michel said legislators have put his school districts in a bind.

"They basically cut funding from either end - state and taxes - so what are they going to do?" asked Michel.

A troubling question indeed, so officials from Mohawk Valley school districts gathered Monday night to tackle to 2 percent tax cap together head on.

"We can all sit around and complain woe is me, but in the end, the kids are still coming in September," said Michel.

Speaking to school administrators about the tax cap was Dr. Richard Timbs. He's the Executive Director of the Statewide School Finance Consortium, an association that represents about 30 percent of the state's school children.

"These school districts, I feel, will run out of money in a couple of years," said Timbs.

He said without an overhaul in the state's education system, districts like those in the Mohawk Valley have no chance of staying afloat.

"There's a certain amount of poverty in the area and so they have less capacity to raise taxes or support their school systems," said Timbs.

Proposed solutions include regionalizing programs likely to be cut in the coming years, like sports, arts, and Advanced Placement courses. That, and urge legislators to relieve districts from state mandates and contractual agreements like health insurance.

"Because in Amsterdam, that's well over a $2 million increase a year," said Perillo.

For more information on your school district's numbers under the tax cap, you can visit
www.statewideonline.org.