TRUCKEE, Calif. and#8212; Under a new proposal, the Tahoe Truckee Unified School District could realize almost $2.6 million in new budget reductions for the next year.

The district, aiming for a worst-case deficit of $4 million already cut $3.7 million from the 2009-10 budget through a mix of teacher layoffs, cuts to salaries and other staffing and measures aimed at increasing district revenue.

A proposal Wednesday went to legislators in Sacramento from the Schools For Sound Finance, a group representing basic aid school districts, including the Tahoe Truckee Unified School District. The proposal offered to cut state funding to basic aid districts as a pre-emptive measure to balance the cuts with those revenue limit school districts are facing.

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Revenue limit districts receive only state funding, while basic aid districts like Tahoe Truckee receive local property taxes and some categorical state funding.

The idea of the measure, according to the Wednesday proposal, is to offer a and#8220;fair share cutand#8221; to reduce state funding given to basic aid districts at the same rate revenue limit districts have been cut. Officials at the district have maintained since their cuts began the district is far better off than revenue limit districts because although property tax growth is slowing, a positive trend is still projected for the upcoming year.

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In hopes to avoid relegation to revenue-limit status, the proposaland#8217;s goal is to pre-emptively come to Sacramento legislators with a cut.

The additional $2.6 million reduction, if approved, represents a $637 cut in per-pupil funds from the state to the district. The number is about 5 percent of the districtand#8217;s annual $50 million operating budget, and could result in a total cut, when added in with the current $3.7 million in reductions, of about $6.3 million.

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