Politicians question school
budget process
Legislative resistance
to Corzine's plan for citizens' gathering puts his proposal on
a 2008 timetable
Thursday, April 20, 2006
• By TERRENCE DOPP • The
Express-Times
TRENTON | Following the defeat of almost half of all school budgets statewide, Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts said Wednesday school budget referendums have become futile and he may introduce legislation that would end the practice. On Tuesday, voters defeated 47 percent of all spending plans in school elections that saw on average just 15.7 percent of voters cast ballots. Ten out of the 23 school budgets in Warren County failed, while 14 of the 28 in Hunterdon County were defeated. "When you have voter participation so anemic you have to question the validity of a process no one is participating in," said Roberts, D-Camden. "The process whereby we vote on school budgets has become a process of declining value." Roberts plans to introduce legislation to encourage municipalities, schools and counties to share services and regionalize operations. He declined to provide further details but said it also would likely seek to move April school elections to coincide with the June primary or the November general election to boost turnout. Mixed endorsements The New Jersey School Boards Association spokesman Frank Belluscio said the group would support an end to required voter approval of budgets but feared moving the elections of school board officials to coincide with government elections would inject partisan politics. "The situation is that (state aid) does affect property taxes, and that's what you saw Tuesday," Belluscio said. "The fact is that the budget is controlled by a cap. It's developed with oversight by the Department of Education. The school budget is the only budget that goes before voters on a mass level." Assemblyman Michael Doherty, R-Warren/Hunterdon, is a frequent critic of the system he said pours 80 percent of all education aid into the 30 poorest, inner-city districts. "It's a result of five years of flat funding. Most of the money in the state has been directed to more urban areas. And that leads to higher property taxes," Doherty said "We need to fund every student in every district at a statewide average. ... If districts want to spend more, it's entirely up to that district." Moving toward tax relief "I see (the election results) as momentum building for true property tax relief," said William Dressel, executive director of the New Jersey State League of Municipalities, and supporter of a constitutional convention. "Taxpayers are sending a very strong signal to the State House (that) they are sick and tired of lip service. They are sick and tired of procrastination and they demand they begin to work on actual, true property tax reform." On Wednesday, primarily minority-party Republicans rushed to propose solutions to the rash of school closings by calling for greater state funding of schools. One GOP bill also seeks to strip the Department of Education of its power to restore cuts made to a defeated budget by the local government. Under New Jersey law, the governing body reviews defeated budgets. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Anthony Bucco of Morris County would make the municipal bodies' decisions binding. Local educators react Ending budget referendums made a lot of sense to Delaware Valley Superintendent Martin Matula. Matula said under the referendum process superintendents run a district's day-to-day operations and the community votes on the budget, so he sees no need for boards of education "except to get frustrated when the budget gets defeated." There's great value in moving board election dates to November, Matula said. "I think for combining purposes and saving the school districts some money, that's not a bad idea," Matula said. "The timing of all that stuff doesn't make sense now." James Momary, Warren Hills Regional School Board president, said moving elections to November would more accurately reflect what the community wants. "It would get more people to turnout to vote," he said. "There's always been the fear, at least I've heard it around the state, that moving it would more than likely politicize the board elections." Changing the current referendum process is a hot potato issue in the state, Momary said. "It doesn't seem to be working real well, does it?," Momary said. "I certainly don't know what the answer is." Terrence Dopp is Trenton correspondent for The Express-Times.
He can be reached at 609-292-5154. |