Voters got wise to sham of school budget elections
Ihave sent the following letter to Gov. Jon Corzine. Gov. Corzine, I read in the News Transcript of Dec. 26, 2007, ("Colts Neck Asks Governor to Relax Election Standard") that administrators in the Colts Neck K-8 School District are trying to undermine legislation which requires (beginning in April 2008) second ballot school initiatives to receive a 60 percent approval (a supermajority) and which also eliminated the authority of municipal governing bodies to overrule the "election" results when those results denied them their attempt to levy additional taxes in order to meet their budgetary increases.

The New Jersey School Boards Association resolution states that "low voter turnout (often less than 15 percent) for school budget questions often means that success or failure is often based on very low margins and gives those persons who vote in the negative greater voice and control in their respective communities."

The reason that voter turnout is low, and getting lower, is due to the voters coming to realize that the system as it existed was a sham. The school budget "elections" were simply a nonbinding referendum.

In all too many cases the municipal governing bodies either ignored the will of the voters altogether when the budget was defeated at the polls or reduced the requested budget increases by insignificant amounts in order to give the appearance that attention was being paid to their concerns.

Those voters who were against the budgets as proposed didn't go to the polls because they realized their voting was simply an act of futility.

It was long overdue that this sham was seen for what it was and has finally been eliminated, hopefully once and for all.

Joel Drobes Freehold Township