Marlboro board may ask for do-over on ballot law

MARLBORO - A resolution will soon appear before the Marlboro K-8 Board of Education that will address special budget questions that are placed on the ballot in the annual school election.

The resolution, requested by Superintendent of Schools David Abbott, is titled "Restore the principle ofmajority rule in the state of New Jersey as it pertains to special budget questions in school board annual elections."

Special budget questions (also called second ballot questions) are proposals for specific items or services that usually involve expenditures above a proscribed spending limit, according to the New Jersey School Boards Association (NJSBA).

Voters who go to the polls in the annual school election, held in April, are asked to approve a tax levy to support their school district's budget for the coming year. That would be the first ballot question.

Some districts place second questions on the ballot. The second ballot questionsmay include funding for the hiring or continued employment of certificated staff, the provision of curricular programs or the purchase of equipment such as textbooks and computers.

State legislation that was enacted in 2007 and establishes new limits on the overall amount of property taxes a school district may collect also addressed second ballot questions.

That law now requires second ballot questions to be approved by 60 percent of the voters who participate in the annual school election. The 60 percent figure is referred to as a supermajority. Previously, a second ballot question only required a simplemajority to pass, according to a press release on the NJSBA InternetWeb site.

In addition to requiring a supermajority to approve a second ballot question- a proposal which usually calls for more taxes to be collected- school boards have lost their ability to appeal the defeat of a second ballot question to the municipal governing body, which had the right to overturn the question's rejection by voters.

As the effects of the law may be felt in April, school boards are being asked to petition Gov. Jon Corzine and request him to suspend the second ballot question provisions.

School board President Terry Spilken said requiring 60 percent of voters in an election to vote in the affirmative in order to pass a second ballot question "would certainly make the questions more difficult to pass."

The NJSBApress release states, "Given the historically low voter turnout in school elections, the 60 percent supermajority could result in situations where a small number of votes would have a dramatic impact on local public education programs."

The Colts Neck Board of Education passed a similar resolution in November. The board is asking Corzine and other Garden State lawmakers to amend the law to eliminate the provision of a supermajority for second ballot questions.

No members of the Marlboro board objected to Abbott's request for the resolution to be prepared. The board may vote on the resolution at its meeting Jan. 22.

- Rebecca Morton