Education

This much is clear after Gov. Paterson's news conference on Sunday: The city's cash-strapped transit system won't be getting any help from Albany. That could bring threatened cuts to service and the elimination of free rides for schoolkids one step closer. "My hands are tied right now because we don't have any resources to give them," said Paterson. He said he would hate to see free MetroCards for city schoolkids scrapped to balance the cash-strapped Metropolitan Transportation Authority's looming budget deficit but couldn't stop such a move. "Personally, I don't think I like the idea of diminishing the MetroCards," he said, adding the move would hurt poor families. "They need the MetroCards to go to school."The MTA is scrambling to fill a massive deficit that emerged in recent weeks because of $143 million in state cuts and payroll taxes below state projections. The MTA has proposed eliminating 21 local bus routes, among other cutbacks. The Daily News reported Saturday the MTA is also looking to cut free MetroCards for hundreds of thousands of students.The MTA board is slated to vote on the cutbacks Wednesday. Despite Paterson's kind words for the student MetroCard program, sources said the state has quietly cut its own longstanding funding for the program this yearIn recent years, the state and city have directed $45 million each toward the $160 million program annually, while the MTA has picked up the rest.But this year, the state cut its funding to $6 million, as part of its larger MTA cuts, sources said.A Paterson spokeswoman defended the state's reductions and insisted they were across-the-board cuts for the agency - and not directed at the MetroCard program.