School district, town agree
to cut tax levy by $138,000
By linda denicola
Staff Writer

FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP — Follow-ing several meetings between members of the Township Committee and the Board of Education, both parties agreed to cut $138,000 from the tax levy that will support the defeated 2002-03 school budget. The governing bodies met separately on May 14 to pass resolutions certifying the new budget amount.

In voting down the board’s 2002-03 school year budget on April 16, voters rejected a 7.5-cent increase in the local school tax rate. With the cut to the tax levy now in place, the increase in the local school tax rate will be 7 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.

The tax levy to support the 2002-03 budget will be $34,952,726, instead of the $35,090,726 initially requested by the board. The total budget, which had been proposed at $40,543,347, is now $40,410,347. In the 2001-02 school year the board has been operating with a $37,529,773 budget.

The cuts agreed to by the committee and the school board include $25,000 from curriculum development; $10,000 from professional development; $25,000 from instructional supplies; $28,000 from property supplies; and $50,000 from equipment.

To the owner of a home assessed at $200,000, a 7.5-cent hike would have resulted in a $150 increase in school taxes next year. To the owner of a home assessed at $300,000, the increase would have been $225.

With a tax rate increase of 7 cents per $100 the increases will be as follows: $140 on a house assessed at $200,000; and $210 on a house assessed at $300,000.

In addition to the 7-cent increase in the tax rate to support the operating budget for 2002-03, residents will pay a 5.8-cent increase to cover the cost of debt service associated with the construction of a new elementary school on Route 537 near Wem-rock Road.

Taken together (the operating budget increase and the debt service increase), residents will see a rise in the local school tax rate of about 12.8 cents, from $1.22 to about $1.34 per $100 of assessed valuation.

The 2002-03 budget provides for an additional 220 students in the K-8 district; maintains and enhances current programs and activities; and adds new staff in order to accommodate increased enrollment, according to the board. The staff additions are in the areas of regular education and special education classroom teachers, special education teacher assistants, speech and English as a Second Language teachers, additional guidance and nursing time, bus drivers and lunch aides.

Committeeman Raymond Kershaw said although the state mandates many items in a school district’s budget, it does not fully fund those items, leaving taxpayers to make up the difference.

Committeeman David Salkin said the officials who reviewed the board’s 2002-03 budget tried to come up with cuts that would not have a negative impact on the students or the staff.

Salkin explained recently that the committee felt obligated to make some cuts because the voters, at least the small percentage that voted, turned down the budget. But, he said, "There wasn’t anything there that we could lop off and say ‘You really don’t need that.’ "

Since the school board has agreed to the cuts, a copy of the district’s budget will now go to the county and the state.

Salkin also said he thinks the defeated school budget was the result of two issues.

"Residents are angry with the Freehold Regional High School District Board of Education and that spilled over onto the local budget vote and there’s a general anger with the way schools are funded because of the increases in property taxes."

He said he believes state representatives need to find a new way to fund education, one that does not have such a severe impact on property taxes.