On Monday this week Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick signed one of the tightest state budgets in years, leaving many Vineyard organizations that depend on state funding scrambling to assess the damage.

The lean $30.6 billion budget, scaled back some $750 million from the prior year, hit some Island organizations harder than others, but spokesmen from the Cape and Islands legislative delegation said this week that for the most part the Vineyard was spared the longest of knives.

“We didn’t do amazingly well and we didn’t get bumped up by any means, but we’re kind of lucky in that we did not get hit hard with local aid,” said Nell Coogan, the Vineyard legislative liaison for Rep. Timothy Madden. Seth Rolbein, chief of staff for Sen. Dan Wolf, agreed.

“Local aid was a surprise to a lot of people and a welcome surprise,” he said earlier in the week. “Town managers were gearing up for cuts across the state.”

As the ink dried on the budget several Vineyard organizations could claim at least some measure of victory in being spared further cuts. Vineyard Transit Authority administrator Angela Grant said she received word from the state in February that she should prepare for a three to eight per cent cut in funding from the state. For an organization that is reimbursed for its spending at the end of the year, the cuts would have been extremely difficult to manage.

“The difficult part with the Vineyard Transit Authority is that we expend 50 per cent of our budget in the first three months of the fiscal year,” Mrs. Grant said. “So it’s stressful every year waiting to see what the state will do.”

Had the state followed through on its foreshadowed cuts, Mrs. Grant said she would have no choice but to cut back on service. Still, level funding is less than ideal for the organization, especially with fuel prices jumping 40 per cent in the last year.

“This is the third or fourth year of level funding,” she said. “Fortunately an infusion of federal money has helped us bridge that gap over past few years.”

“Another year is past and we’re looking forward to better years,” she sighed.

Martha’s Vineyard Community Services can also breathe a little easier after their Daybreak Clubhouse program, which provides vocational and rehabilitation services to adults with mental disabilities, was spared the budget axe.

“They were facing a cross-state $3 million cut which is 17 per cent of their funding,” said Ms. Coogan. “That would have been felt hugely down here because even though Community Services does a lot of their own fund-raising they do get a big chunk from the Department of Mental Health and we were able to maintain that, which is great.”

A statewide early intervention program aimed at children with developmental disabilities from birth to age three that the Vineyard public schools participates in was also unexpectedly spared any cuts in funding, Ms. Coogan said.

Mr. Rolbein said the public school system may even benefit from a $4 million line item championed by Senator Wolf that will provide assistance for the planning and development of regional school districts. Although the statewide pool would be primarily for emerging districts, Mr. Rolbein said existing regional schools such as those on the Vineyard would have access to the funds.

“We’re hopeful that this type of funding will allow districts to continue to fund teachers and programs,” he said.

Other line items with local implications included a proposed $3 million cut in the $6 million budget for regional tourism council grants, which among other things help to support the Island chamber of commerce. That $3 million cut was ultimately pulled from the final version of the state budget

“Both Representative Madden and Senator Wolf both believe the Vineyard makes so much money for the state in tourism that we need to help out in any way we can,” said Ms. Coogan.

Still not all Vineyard organizations escaped unscathed. At the Vineyard Health Care Access Program, director Sarah Kuh faces a new austere reality. Ms. Kuh and her staff of three full-time and one half-time employees help over 3,000 Vineyard residents navigate the labyrinthine world of private and public health insurance. For the past several years the program has operated thanks in part to $3.5 million in grants from the executive office of health and human services. This year the health care access program requested only $2.5 million in grants. Instead they received nothing.

“Unless we find new funding it will mean we will either have to cut back on hours or make cuts to personnel, either of which will directly affect our ability to help people in a timely and effective manner,” said Ms. Kuh. She found the cuts especially foolhardy in light of state efforts to achieve 100 per cent health care coverage for Massachusetts residents.

“The funding for these grants is a drop in the bucket compared to the amount the state spends on coverage,” Ms. Kuh said. “What programs like ours do is help people connect the dots and navigate a very bureaucratic system. It’s really penny-wise and pound-foolish. The state spends billions on health care but when the system is too difficult for people to navigate on their own, it doesn’t matter. Then you get people going to the emergency room without coverage which ends up being even more expensive.”

Ms. Coogan agreed that the cuts to the program would be deeply felt.

“It’s sad because they do such amazing work,” she said. “It wasn’t a fun budget. We hope that one of these years it’ll be a little bit easier to say yes to some people.”