A little bit of luck

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, our local superintendents of schools are thanking their lucky stars that their budgets were approved by voters. The OK from voters keeps the budgets from having to be reviewed by municipal governing bodies and face possible reductions in services or personnel.

In this area of Monmouth County it was almost a clean sweep for school districts: tax levies to support budgets for the 2007-08 school year were approved in the Colts Neck, Farmingdale, Freehold Borough, Freehold Township and Marl-boro elementary school districts, the Manalapan-Englishtown Regional School District and the Freehold Regional High School District.

Only in Howell did voters reject a tax levy, that being for the Howell K-8 School District. The Howell Township Council will now have the responsibility of reviewing the budget and coming to an agreement with the Howell Board of Education on how much money, if any, should be taken out of the 2007-08 spending plan. The school board would be responsible for determining what personnel or programs would be cut.

One technical point: while voters in Englishtown did reject the Manalapan-Englishtown Regional School District tax levy by a count of 111 to 48, the Englishtown votes did not overcome a larger approval of the budget in Manalapan, and therefore the district's budget was approved.

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.