JAY – Once again, the town meeting referendum date is up in the air because the state has not released its education funding figures to school systems. The annual referendum has already been pushed from April 23 to May 7 and will now have to be rescheduled again.

The Jay School Committee had planned to meet with Budget Committee members on Wednesday, March 14, to set a budget for the 2007-08 school year.

But since they don’t know what the anticipated state revenue figures will be, they have canceled that meeting, school Business Manager Stacie Everett said.

School officials plan to wait for the figures to be released before they schedule another meeting date, Everett said.

“We’re not going to try and guess,” she said. “We’re just being held hostage too much by the state. We’re all done.”

By law, the state was to release those figures by Feb. 1, but it failed to comply as legislators and the governor wrangle over school consolidation proposals.

Town Manager Ruth Marden had said on March 1, that the May 7 date would just barely give the town time to schedule another town meeting if any articles fail before the new fiscal year begins on July 1.