Some area residents will be shocked this week when they read about tax increases associated with school budgets for the 2002-03 school year.
A damaging blow was dealt to school boards and to residents when Gov. James McGreevey announced that as one way of dealing with the state’s multi-billion-dollar deficit, state aid provided to local school districts for the 2002-03 school year would be frozen at the 2001-02 level.
That is especially painful to districts that are experiencing continued increases in enrollment. As one local superintendent summed it up, it’s like a person being told to feed more mouths at the table this year with the same amount of money he made the previous year.
Residents who read the stories about the 2002-03 school budgets will learn about proposed increases in the tax rates that will cost them hundreds of dollars more in property taxes. A portion of some districts’ looming tax increases is tied to construction projects that have recently been approved in order to handle the skyrocketing enrollment.
April 16 is the day when residents will go to the polls to cast their ballots on the proposed school spending plans.
Defeated budgets will be reviewed by municipal governments for recommendations of possible cuts. With 80 percent or more of the budget tied up in fixed costs, the cuts, as always, will be made directly to student programs.
Residents who care about their districts and are concerned about thNews will come as shock to someese proposed school tax rate increases, which reach as high as 23 and 24 cents per $100 of assessed valuation in Hazlet and Aberdeen, respectively, should make a point of attending the upcoming school budget hearings scheduled for early next week.
This has been a particularly difficult year for school boards and administrators to prepare next year’s budgets.
First they were led to believe that the April 16 school election would be postponed.
Then they learned that it would not be and that they would receive their final aid numbers — which would be frozen — March 11.
That left just one week to finalize a tentative spending plan and an additional seven working days to hold a public hearing and adopt the final budget proposal.
With some of these hefty increases, it is important that residents understand the reasons behind them. The way to do that is to study the advertised budget and attend the public hearing.