Still facing the strain of reduced aid from New York State government, St. Lawrence County school districts have put forward their budgets for next school year to be voted on today.

Voting hours vary from district to district. In Potsdam, hours are 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., in Canton from noon to 9 p.m., in Ogdensburg fro noon to 9 p.m., and in Massena from noon to 8 p.m.

Voters will be passing judgment on school budgets, school board candidates, and propositions such as those for the purchase of new buses.

Rural and poorer districts in the state and county, some having made severe cuts to staff and programs, are still struggling with the state’s putting the onus on districts to make up the difference in state budget deficits in the wake of the banking and mortgage crisis, and that policy continues though state revenue shortfalls have been recovered.

In the meantime the state has been trying to impose a cap on the annual increases in revenues that schools can raise.

And during Governor Andrew Cuomo’s visit to Potsdam in February 2013, he told reporters that he believed the solution to the problem of insufficient state aid to schools was for schools to merge to see if they can find savings that way.