ATLANTA --- Gov. Sonny Perdue has asked the Georgia attorney general to rule on whether local school districts can use taxpayer money to pay for lawsuits against the state.

Mr. Perdue sent the request to Attorney General Thurbert Baker on Tuesday, a week after the Consortium for Adequate School Funding in Georgia withdrew a 4-year-old lawsuit claiming the state has an unfair system of paying for education.

Consortium executive director Joe Martin said the state is trying to put a "chill" on efforts to file another lawsuit by telling districts not to pay the group's dues -- which are used for attorney fees -- until the issue is resolved.

On Wednesday, Georgia schools Superintendent Kathy Cox sent a memo to the 50 mostly rural districts involved in the 2004 lawsuit cautioning them against using public school funds to pay dues until Mr. Baker can rule on the matter.

"We were bewildered when we saw the message from Kathy Cox," Mr. Martin said. "The obvious irony is the governor depends on the attorney general for legal advice. To ask the attorney general for legal advice on a case in which the state is a party certainly raises a question."

Perdue spokesman Bert Brantley said the governor had been looking at the issue for some time and his request to Mr. Baker has nothing to do with the status of the lawsuit.

"The timing of it has nothing to do with whether or not the lawsuit was dropped or refiled," Mr. Brantley said.

Ms. Cox's spokesman, Dana Tofig, said the superintendent's memo was intended to let school districts know they might be breaking the law.

"The superintendent wants to make sure public education funds are being used for public education and being used in accordance with the law," Mr. Tofig said.

The consortium filed the lawsuit in September 2004, and attempts by the state to halt it landed the case in the Georgia Supreme Court the following year.

The state's highest court ruled that the case could go forward.

The case was set to go to trial in October, but the consortium announced Sept. 16 that it was withdrawing the lawsuit over concerns that a new judge assigned to the case would not give a fair hearing.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Long oversaw the lawsuit for years, but the case was recently transferred to Judge Craig L. Schwall after budget cuts eliminated Judge Long's position.

Mr. Martin has said he plans to file the lawsuit in another state court, but he has not given a timeline for it.

The lawsuit claimed that small, poor counties don't raise enough from local taxes to compensate for more than $1 billion in cuts to state education spending in recent years. The state's attorneys said Georgia is providing what the law requires.