Big Groton — the whole of it, including its embedded city, its historic villages and its plain vanilla town — has always been the decent, reliable guy in the neighborhood. And it is definitely a guy kind of place, the Submarine Capital of the World.

If Norwich and New London are dowager duchesses and Lyme and Old Lyme country squires, Groton is the guy who rakes his own yard — has a yard to rake — and minds his own business. Groton enjoys pride of accomplishment, being one of the few Connecticut towns that still manufactures, and on time and under budget, at that. It hosts the state's only military base.

How does a regular guy holding up his end of the bargain get all the wrong numbers in the school funding raffle? All towns are quaking about school aid cuts and the recommendation that they assume part of their teachers' pension payments, but the governor picked Groton as the biggest loser, proposing a $14 million cut in state aid — now perhaps more.

The governor's plan would make big winners of core cities like New London, where the state has been investing in a virtual pilot plan for school choice. Magnet school funding is on the table, and New London is fearful, but up till now the city's gain has been Groton's envy. More than 500 of Groton's kids go to magnet and charter schools outside the school system, and Groton must pay their tuition. That number is spread across many classrooms, which generally means the town is still paying just as many teachers.

Groton has about 4,500 students, seven elementary schools with one about to close, two middle schools, a highly regarded high school and an ambitious but reasonable plan to update buildings.

About a thousand students come from Navy families. Many of them and some civilian families live in tax-exempt military housing. The town gets federal impact aid, but not enough to offset the comparable property tax revenue. Navy families have health insurance under Tricare, which keeps them out of the census of families getting state-supported Husky insurance.  The governor has proposed using insurance rather than the outdated measure of free school lunches as a way to count heads.

But that's not all. Groton is standing by with its school restructuring plan, hoping for 80 percent state reimbursement of a $100 million project, even as ratings agencies have lowered Connecticut's borrowing credentials.

As the hits pile up, so does the tension between the school board and the town.

Legislators right now are debating how to balance a deficit budget. Groton, with a legislative delegation of three freshmen, may lack some clout, but it should not suffer because it doesn't fit the template. Comparisons between the only town hosting a military base and dependents and all the other towns are apples and oranges.

Superintendent Michael Graner has been wise in saying that time is the invisible factor for finding ways to cut. Time may heal, but most important, it gives managers a chance to think through their options. Better luck to Groton.

Lisa McGinley is a member of The Day's editorial board.