School
budget votes loom
Board member elections, too. Most
districts proposing tax hikes this year.
Sunday, April 16, 206 • By LYNN OLANOFF •
The Express-Times
Residents in 52 Warren and Hunterdon
county school districts will go to the polls Tuesday to vote
on a total of $436 million in local school taxes.
Also on the ballots are candidates for
local school boards, who help decide those local school
taxes and guide education decisions.
Most school taxes increase under the
proposed local tax levies residents will vote on, including
increases as great as 13.6 percent for Alexandria Township's
contribution to Delaware Valley Regional School District and
13.5 percent for Mansfield Township's contribution to Warren
Hills Regional School District.
In dollar figures, the tax hikes mean
increases on residents living in an average assessed home
ranging from $130 in Hackettstown to $216 in Liberty
Township to $67 for Blairstown Township's contribution to
North Warren Regional School District.
Another tight year
Proposed school tax decreases are few and
far between. Phillipsburg's proposed school tax levy would
decrease school taxes by almost 1 percent. Tax rate
decreases are proposed for contributions to North
Hunterdon/Voorhees Regional High School for residents in
Califon, Clinton, Clinton Township, Hampton and High Bridge,
but those municipalities were recently
reassessed.
"It's shaping up to be another tight
year," said Mike Yaple, a spokesman for the New Jersey
School Boards Association. "When the state aid doesn't keep
pace with the cost of education, it puts the pressure on the
homeowner and the business owner through their property
taxes. This year, we're seeing quite commonly a number of
average property tax bills increasing in the $200-$400 range
and some have been more than $600 and $800 for the average
property owner."
While most school tax hikes aren't quite
that high locally, flat state aid for five years is a major
reason school taxes are increasing, local superintendents
said.
"You can only do this so often without
the repercussions felt locally, and that's what's
happening," Warren Hills Superintendent Peter Merluzzi said.
"Despite all of that, we put together a budget that
maintains our programs for our students."
Flat state aid is essentially reduced
state aid, Hackettstown Superintendent Robert Gratz
said.
"Even Governor Corzine recognized himself
in reality flat funding is a cut with increased costs and
increased expectations," Gratz said.
Cap issue main problem
To offset some of those costs,
Hackettstown's budget calls for the reduction of four
teachers and four teacher assistants. The budget adds two
new positions: a middle school librarian and an elementary
basic skills teacher.
North Warren Regional School District
officials continue to feel the repercussions from a state
cap enacted in 2004 that limits the amount school districts
can keep in surplus, Superintendent John Toleno
said.
"The No. 1 challenge in creating this
budget was the cap issue. No. 2, you have to come up with a
number you believe tax payers can absorb," Toleno said.
Proposed tax increases on residents living in an average
assessed home in the district range from $67 in Blairstown
Township to $185 in Knowlton Township.
Approval ratings
Last year, voters approved 16 out of 23
school budgets in Warren County and 16 out of 29 school
budgets in Hunterdon County. Warren's approval rate 69.6
percent was in line with the statewide approval rate, which
was 70.7 percent. Hunterdon's approval rate was 55.2
percent.
Over the last five years, Hunterdon's
approval rate has generally been lower than the state
average, while Warren's approval rate has generally been on
par with it.
Statewide approval rates have ranged
between 62.2 and 81.1 percent over the last five years, with
the greatest approval rate coming in 2001 when the economy
was considered to be flourishing, Yaple, the school boards
spokesman, said.
"By and large, you often see the school
election results correlating with the state of the economy,"
he said.
This year, the economy is about average,
but the state budget is in crisis, Yaple said.
"Certainly we don't' expect it to get
under 50 percent we haven't seen that for decades but we
would be surprised if we saw the nearly 90 percent success
rate we saw six years ago when the economy was really
strong," he said.
Reporter Kat Main contributed to this
report.
Reporter Lynn Olanoff can be reached at 908-475-8044 or by
e-mail at lolanoff@express-times.com.
© 2006 The Express-Times. Used with
permission.
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