Corzine throws in towel on formula for school funds Says state out of time this year Tuesday, February 06, 2007 • BY DUNSTAN McNICHOL • Star-Ledger Staff Gov. Jon Corzine told lawmakers yesterday he has officially given up plans to craft a new formula for distributing $7 billion in state public school aid in time for use in school budgets for the upcoming year. Corzine said the state had run out of time for reworking the formula for funding schools this year, although he pledged to increase state aid to school districts. "I do believe we are going to have to increase funding for schools this year," Corzine said. But the governor added that any new formula "needs to work for our kids. I would rather work to make sure that we have an appropriate funding formula, rather than one sooner." Sen. Robert Martin (R-Morris), one of about a half-dozen key lawmakers brought to Corzine's office yesterday for briefings on the school funding plans, said: "This year will be a bridge year. It's not clear how much additional money will be available." At the beginning of their special session to revamp local property taxes last summer, lawmakers promised a new school aid formula that would have boosted state aid to public schools by almost $1 billion. Recently, however, prospects of that level of new aid dimmed as lawmakers have pursued a $2.2 billion property tax credit program. Sen. Joseph Doria (D-Hudson), who also attended one of yesterday's briefings, said he was disappointed that the seven-month effort to rewrite a school funding formula has fallen short. Lawmakers who set up four special committees to address property taxes dedicated one of the panels to school funding. School taxes account for 55 percent of the state's $20.1 billion property tax tab. Originally the panel hoped to deliver a new school aid distribution formula by the end of last year. Without a new aid formula, Corzine told lawmakers, additional funding for schools will be targeted to communities that have been shortchanged by five years of flat funding. The governor also told legislators he is still committed to providing millions of dollars in additional aid to expand kindergarten and preschool programs in poor communities, Martin said. Corzine will present his proposed budget Feb. 22. For lobbyists and others monitoring the Legislature's efforts to revamp the state's school funding and local tax systems, the inability to devise a new school aid formula was seen as a major failure. "Without a school funding formula, the entire idea of property tax relief and reform goes down the drain," said Lynne Strickland, lobbyist for the Garden State Coalition of Schools. "This is a big hole in the puzzle." Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Mercer) said the delay could help the Legislature devise a better formula. "By no means does this delay signal an abandonment of the goal of enacting a formula that treats all schools and schoolchildren equally," she said. Staff writer Deborah Howlett contributed to this report. © 2006 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with permission.