In less than four weeks, NJN, the public radio and television network owned by New Jersey, will run out of state money to operate. Without a last-minute intervention, its outlets will go off the air on Dec. 31, and NJN’s 130 employees have already received layoff notices.

With plenty of competing options being floated to reinvent NJN, no one really expects it to go dark in the long term. Last week, Gov. Chris Christie told The Star-Ledger in Newark that he expected to delay the cuts in order to give interested parties time to come up with a plan. NJN had been receiving about $11 million a year in state subsidies, including $4 million as part of its $18 million operating budget.

But the brinkmanship underscores a difficult reality for public broadcasters. Even as they nervously wait to see whether Republicans carry through on threats to cut their federal financing, many are already grappling with deep cuts at the state level.

The cuts have already taken their toll in Pennsylvania, where last year the elimination of nearly 90 percent of the state’s $8 million for public stations led to layoffs and the disappearance of local programs like WPSU-TV’s “Scholastic Scrimmage” quiz show for high school students.

Losing the show hit many rural communities particularly hard, said Ted Krichels, the general manager of Penn State Public Broadcasting, which operates WPSU. His station’s loss of $1 million a year in state money “affected short-term our ability to be community-responsive,” he said, adding that local production was particularly labor-intensive.

Other states, including Utah, South Carolina and Idaho, have already reduced public broadcasting subsidies, and public money may be cut in Mississippi and Virginia, too. Two years ago, New York’s public broadcasters faced a 50 percent reduction that was changed to 20 percent, and they had no cuts last year.

The state-level cuts are part of a broader tough economic environment for stations, which also raise money from individual donors, foundations and corporate underwriting.

From 2008 to 2009, nonfederal support of public television stations declined an estimated $260 million, said Mark Erstling, a senior vice president at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which administers federal money. For 2010, the public radio and television stations that the corporation surveyed were expecting to lose 14 percent of their overall revenue, he said.

“We’re projecting for 2010 through 2013 that the economy will recover and stations will lag,” he said. “Every source of income they have other than, so far, federal, has declined.”

So far, he said, stations have made their way through the recession by cutting discretionary items and staff. Some operators, including the University of Michigan, have sold off stations. In November, Pittsburgh’s WQED-TV sold a secondary commercial station it owned to Ion Media Networks for $3 million.

But even as stations adjust to harsh new realities, some public broadcasters see opportunity. The Pennsylvania cuts intensified talks among several broadcasters in the state about reducing overhead by sharing some operations and programs, Mr. Krichels said.

Mr. Erstling said that in New Jersey, which has overlapping signals from Philadelphia and New York City, “I think there’s enormous opportunities to be had.” The corporation recently offered $20 million in nationwide incentives for overlapping stations that agreed to merge or collaborate.

In 1992, New York’s WNET-TV proposed assuming NJN’s management, but was dismissed as an outsider. Today WNET.org, which owns Thirteen and WLIW21, is again part of talks about NJN’s future.

Neal Shapiro, president and chief executive of WNET.org, said: “We believe that whatever happens should be New Jersey-centric and the licenses should stay with the state. But we think what we can bring is some expertise and economies of scale as an added ingredient to make something happen that is achievable, economical and journalistically of value.”

WNYC of New York has been part of the talks on the radio side. “We’re happy to help in any way,” said Laura Walker, president and chief executive of WNYC Public Radio. “An independent public radio in whatever form could be very strong and could really serve New Jersey better.”

Indeed, Ms. Walker says the three WNYC-owned stations — WNYC-AM, WNYC-FM and WQXR — already attract the largest public radio audience in New Jersey, and WNYC has committed to increasing its coverage of state issues. WNYC, which was sold by New York City in 1997, is often held up as an example by those who believe stations are better off not being government-owned.

“There’s no doubt that being independent has been extraordinarily good for WNYC,” Ms. Walker said, “most importantly for the listeners and the users.”

Some in New Jersey are opposed to seeing outsiders come in. Janice Selinger, acting executive director of NJN, said she could envision cutting costs by having back offices work together but would be opposed to giving up control of programming.

“No matter how well-intentioned New York and Pennsylvania media may be, they’re not going to cover New Jersey the way we do,” she said. “It’s important to have a voice for the state of New Jersey.”