AUGUSTA -- Facing the prospect of reduced revenues during the coming budget cycle, Maine's Department of Education will delay issuing bonds to finance 12 pending school construction projects across the state.

Superintendents and Department of Education officials say it is too early to know whether the funding delays will affect construction time lines for the new facilities.
The state will delay payments by six months on some construction bonds and by a full year on others.

While the nation's credit crunch has complicated some state governments' efforts to access financing, the state's decision to delay construction bonding is most directly an outcome of reduced revenue expectations, Department of Education spokesman David Connerty-Marin said.

"We're delaying the bonding," he said, "but that's not the same as delaying the project."

By delaying bond payments, Connerty-Marin said, the Department of Education is free to devote more money during the upcoming budget cycle to educational programming rather than construction financing.