State University of New York schools will see a $96.3 million budget cut this year, on account of the governor’s economic plan.

In total, Gov. David Paterson’s plan is slated to reduce budget spending by $630 million during the current fiscal year.

SUNY in particular is being hit with a $96,322,000 budget reduction, one of the highest budget cuts on the list of the 2008-09 Financial Plan, second only to the Department of Correctional Services, which will be facing a cut of $168.1 million.

Binghamton University will see a reduction of slightly more than $2.3 million, announced President Lois B. DeFleur in a budget update notification she sent out in June.

“Governor Paterson proposed this [budget cut] on July 30 when he saw a market plummet in the economy. [He] had to make this reduction in order to keep the budget balanced,” said Matt Anderson, spokesman for the Division of the Budget.

There is a 7 percent budget reduction across the board, which is the fairest approach to a mid-year budget drop, he explained.

“Gov. Paterson ordered the reduction to go into effect, [but the] SUNY board will have to determine how to implement this reduction,” Anderson said. “We believe [the SUNY board has] the flexibility and [it can] determine how to best implement these reductions,” he said.

Because both SUNY and BU are still absorbing the change, the extent to which the budget cut will affect BU is still somewhat uncertain.

“SUNY is working with the Division of the Budget to obtain more information regarding the impact of [the budget cut] on SUNY institutions,” DeFleur said in another notification she sent out in August.

In addition to the $630 million reduction, Paterson has ordered a hard state government hiring freeze, according to a press release issued from his office.

“The hard hiring freeze for the state agencies does not apply to SUNY, but the Division of the Budget has asked SUNY to monitor hiring so we will be asked to provide information regarding our vacancies and hiring,” DeFleur said.

For BU, “the reduction for the Division of Academic Affairs will be 1.1 percent, compared to the 3.3 percent for other divisions, and each division may approach this situation somewhat differently,” she stated.

It’s important to Binghamton officials that the academic programs are not affected by budget cut.

“Our first priority is to protect the quality of our academic programs, and that is why during the first round of cuts the percentage reduction for the Division of Academic Affairs was lower than that of the other divisions,” said Michael McGoff, acting vice president for administration and vice provost for strategic and fiscal planning.

Groups on campus are beginning to feel the effects of the budget cut.

“Campus recreation wasn’t able to cover all of its expenses within its budget for the year and had to look at some program reductions to come back into balance,” said Terry Webb, interim assistant vice president, who supervises campus recreation.

Webb also said that the the departments within Student Affairs have been asked to cut down on spending in order to absorb part of the reduction.

At this time BU administrators will continue to monitor hiring, major purchases and other commitments, according to Gail Glover, spokeswoman for BU.

“SUNY is in the process of developing a financial plan to address the current budget challenges. The financial plan is expected to be presented to the SUNY Board of Trustees Finance and Administration Committee for review and consideration later in September,” said David Henahan, a SUNY spokesman.