School budgets take hit in four districts
"The inequity that once existed among New Jersey's school districts has been turned on its ear. In some cases Abbott districts now outspend more affluent districts..."

The vagaries that make up New Jersey's school budget voting experience were on full display in the April 17 school election. There really is no logical way to account for school budget votes from year to year.

This year, for example, all four school districts covered by the Tri-Town News saw their proposed budget for the 2007-08 school year go down to defeat. The budgets will now be reviewed by the municipal governing body in each community and the school districts face possible reductions in personnel or programs.

Tax

levies to support budgets for the 2007 -08 school year were rejected in the Howell, Jackson Lakewood and Plumsted school districts. The tax levy was approved in the Freehold Regional High School District, which Howell students attend, even though Howell voters turned thumbs down on the proposal.

As they developed a budget for the 2007-08 school year, school board members and school administrators had to deal with a new state law that limited the amount of money they were permitted to raise in local taxes. While a cap on taxes raised for school purposes is a good thing for residents being hit hard by property tax bills, the law turned up the heat on administrators and forced some districts to seek approval of second ballot questions that proposed additional tax levies.

According to some school district business administrators with whom we spoke during the budget process, the state law, referred to as A-1, had a different impact on school districts depending on where each district was in its own financial planning history.

That's a bit like playing the slots in Atlantic City to pay next month's mortgage. Years of planning could mean nothing when the rules of the game are changed, as they were this year by the state Legislature.

Right now there is no more important piece of business for state education officials and state legislators to address than a new school funding formula. Many New Jersey residents are taking a double hit when it comes to school taxes - paying high property taxes to support their own school district and seeing little in return from Trenton in the form of local state aid, while they watch and seethe as tens of millions of tax dollars are being poured into New Jersey's Abbott districts - the 31 school districts regarded as the state's poorest.

The inequity that once existed among New Jersey's school districts has been turned on its ear. In some cases Abbott districts now outspend more affluent districts, thanks to the largess of the state's taxpayers.

Is there any reason for an Abbott district to spend $19,000 per pupil while a suburban district in western Monmouth County spends $10,000 per pupil? Which one is the real underfunded district?

(Hint: Not the Abbott district)

Gov. Jon Corzine has said there will be a new school funding formula in place for the 2008-09 school year. We hope the governor's recuperation from his recent motor vehicle accident will not stall progress on the most important issue New Jersey faces at the present time.