The Town of Wheatfield typically would have already started their paving and road projects by now.

"This year's been a little different with the COVID," Wheatfield Highway Superintendent Paul Siegmann said.

Siegmann said he'd like to get to work as soon as next week. But the highway department is counting on roughly $121,000 in state funding, more than a quarter of its total budget.

Much of it comes from the Consolidated Local Street and Highway Improvement Program – known as CHIPS.

"They told us to proceed as if we're going to get it," he said.

The problem is there's no guarantee they're going to get it. While the state Legislature kept funding for roads at the same level this year, it also included language giving the Division of Budget flexibility to withhold the money if it’s needed for essential government services or capital projects.

"Kind of what everybody's been saying is spend it early and hopefully it won't get taken away but I'm a little leery of that because if we do spend it and they decide not to reimburse us for it, I'm in a rock and a hard place," Siegmann said.

State Senator Rob Ortt said he thinks a lot of communities feel the same way.

"(They) are saying, ‘You know what, we're already going to be in a tough financial position so we're not going to expend more money that we aren't going to get repaid,’ or, ‘We don't know if we're going to recoup those dollars,’" Ortt said.

He said he understands the coronavirus pandemic has created more budget problems for the state.

"If there's going to be a change, if there's going to be less money, any of that needs to be communicated to the localities sooner, rather than later," he said.

The Division of Budget says it’s currently analyzing the proper timing and release of CHIPS and extreme winter recovery payments that typically would come in the next few weeks.

“New York State leads the nation with investment in infrastructure and this administration has provided record levels of funding for localities to maintain their roads and bridges. The reality is, the state is facing a cash crunch as revenue declines by 14% and from the federal decision to delay income tax payments that pushed about $9 billion in revenue to July from April. As a result, we are currently analyzing the proper timing of release of CHIPS and extreme winter recovery funding to ensure the State has the resources to accommodate them. Going forward, in the absence of federal funding to offset our revenue losses, we are developing a plan to reduce state spending by over $10 billion. About 90% of State funding supports schools, healthcare, local grants and services for the most vulnerable populations and any category where we don’t reduce spending will simply mean deeper cuts in another," Spokesperson Freeman Klopott said.

In the meantime, Ortt said he expects many municipalities will likely focus only on critical infrastructure.

"That's going to result in probably less roads being fixed, less potholes being filled in, less potholes being repaired, all that kind of stuff," he said.

Siegmann said his department only gets four to five months a year when it can do this work.

"It's hard to say, ‘Well we'll just do twice as much next year,’" he said. "Our guys are busy every day. We don't have a lot of down time. So to try to double up my work for next year is next to impossible.”