New law will have impact on second ballot questions
BY CLARE MARIE CELANO Staff Writer

FREEHOLD- The Freehold Borough Board of Education has joined a list of school districts asking the governor to grant a do-over.

At a recent meeting the board passed a resolution which asks Gov. Jon Corzine and New Jersey's legislative leaders to amend a provision of a 2007 state law.

Beginning this year the law will require second ballot questions that are placed before the electorate in the April school election to receive a 60 percent supermajority in order to pass.

In other words, if 1,000 people vote in the school election a second ballot question would need 600 yes votes to pass.Anything less than 600 yes votes would send the second ballot question to defeat.

The law does not permit the defeat of the second ballot question to be appealed to the local governing body or to the commissioner of education.

The ballot question which asks voters to approve a local tax levy to support the upcoming school year's operating budget will still only require a simple majority to pass.

The 60 percent requirement for the passage of second ballot questions was part of a state law which set limits on the amount of taxes a school board could collect from local property owners.

An example of the impact of the supermajority requirement can be found right in Freehold Borough.

In the April 2007 school election the board asked voters to approve a second ballot question. The question called for $75,275 in additional property taxes to be raised to pay for school sponsored athletics and extracurricular activities.

The question also provided for a residency officer to be hired part-time to conduct investigations to ensure that all children who attend Freehold Borough schools live in the municipality.

On Election Day approximately 656 residents voted. The second ballot question passed by a count of 342 yes votes to 314 no votes. The programs on the chopping block were saved and the part-time residency officer was hired.

However, if that same number of people voted in this year's election on a second ballot question, approximately 394 yes votes would be required to approve the measure.

Last year's second ballot question result would have been a defeat if the new law had been in place at that time.

According to the New Jersey School Boards Association, "second ballot questions request specific programs, items or services that, in most cases, involve

expenditures above (the

budget) cap. In addition to

imposing a supermajority

approval requirement,

the new law also eliminates

the authority of

municipal governing

bodies to review defeated

second questions and allow the levying of taxes for all or part of the (second ballot question) proposals."

The school board's resolution states that "low voter turnout (often less than 15 percent of registered voters in a municipality) for school budget questions often means that success or failure is often based on very low margins," and goes on to assert that "this (supermajority) requirement violates all principles of majority rule and gives those persons who vote in the negative greater voice and control in their respective communities."

Although school district Business Administrator VeronicaWolf said that at this point she is not anticipating a second ballot question in the 2008 Freehold Borough school election, "if something comes up that the budget cannot support, school officials may have to do a (second) question and see if taxpayers will support that question.We now need 60 percent of them to do so."

Budget information for the 2008-09 school year will be presented by the board to the public in the upcoming months.