Dang budget

Budgets
It is difficult to whine about budget cuts when people are losing their jobs. But I will.

It is the charge of my department to determine the budget needs for the district and plan for these needs five years in advance (you try to predict where technology is going in the next 5 years!)
After about 3 or 4 years at this job, I had it figured out, all the computers were on a 5-6 year replacement schedule, and we were able to bring in new technologies to the classrooms at a steady rate.

I had a set budget amount for several years, we could take about half of it for repalcements and the other half for "new stuff" This was working well. Generally if you could not get the equipment you asked for one year, you could get it the next. One of the nice things about a set budget amount is that the buying power goes up as the cost of technology goes down.
Two years ago my budget was cut in half. We were in good shape last year and managed to get most of what we wanted. This year, however we are in a bit of a bind. We are falling behind in our computer replacement, and there is a need for more SmartBoards and mobile computer labs. The SmartBoards would be great to get into the classrooms. We have had great success getiting these up and running over time, and the mounted smartboards (600 series) has really created a demand.

What is a poor boy to do?