The plan OK’d Monday also includes a $292,000 second ballot question, which is aimed at addressing needs at Central High School
By: John Tredrea
A proposed $49.8 million school budget for 2002-2003, up $4.1 million from 2001-2002, was given tentative approval by the full Hopewell Valley Regional Board of Education Monday night.
The plan OK’d Monday also includes a $292,000 second ballot question, which is aimed at addressing needs at Central High School.
The budget, which now will be reviewed by the county superintendent of schools, will get a public hearing Monday. A final adoption by the school board also is scheduled for that date, following the public hearing.
The board may modify the budget following the public hearing or pursuant to the county review. The final form of the budget will go before the electorate in the annual school district election on April 16.
School officials say key factors in the budget hike over last year are a continuing enrollment climb, costs of opening a new elementary school in Brandon Farms in September, a continuing increase in the cost of providing state- and federal-mandated special education services, staff salary increases and increases in the cost of benefits.
Local taxes will pay for $44.9 million of the budget. Of the $44.9 million, $3.7 million is for debt service, which is not subject to voter approval.
School district Business Administrator John Nemeth said during Monday night’s meeting that the proposed budget would bring a 9-cent school tax rate increase, to $2 per $100 of assessed property value, in Hopewell Borough. This means the owner of a borough home assessed at $200,000 would see school taxes go from $3,820 this year to $4,000 next year.
In Pennington Borough, taxes would go up 18 cents, to $2.11 per $100 of assessed property value. The owner of a Pennington home assessed at $200,000 would thus see school taxes from $3,860 annually to $4,220.
Hopewell Township, which has had a rapid influx of new tax ratables during the past few years, would see its school taxes go down 2 cents, to $1.62. The annual tax bite for a township home assessed at $200,000 would thus drop from $3,280 to $3,240.
School officials took pains Monday night to explain that the differing tax rates for the three towns stem from a state mandate to apply an equalization formula that takes into account disparities between the assessed and market values of properties in each town.
ALSO MONDAY NIGHT, the board voted 7-2, with Steven Wood of Hopewell Borough and Arthur Gabinet of Pennington dissenting, to include a $125,000 appropriation in the budget for new recess equipment at Timberlane School.
The equipment, which includes a new basketball court, would be built near the school’s cafeteria. The money would be taken from the district’s capital reserve fund. Mr. Nemeth said that, since the recess equipment would serve a long-term need, the district can use its capital reserve for the equipment without running afoul of the state’s budget cap law. That law restricts the percentage by which a budget may go up over that of the preceding year. The proposed 2002-2003 is at the limit set by the cap without the recess equipment.
Board member William Hills said the new equipment is needed as a matter of safety. "Children are playing in the parking lot and driveway now," he said.
Mr. Wood said he shared that concern, but added that, given the tax impact the budget would have without the new equipment, he felt fiscal prudence dictated that he vote against including it in the budget. Mr. Gabinet voted no without comment.
Eighty-five thousand dollars for the recess equipment was included in the $1.86 million Back Timberlane referendum soundly defeated in the March 12 public election. Driving up the estimated cost of the equipment to $125,000 is the loss of economies of scale that would have resulted in working on the recess equipment along with nine new fields at Back Timberlane, Superintendent of SchoolsRobert Sopko said.
WITH THE other eight members of the board voting yes, Mr. Wood also voted against a $292,000 second ballot question, again saying fiscal prudence forced him to do so even though the items that would be covered would be, his words, "nice things to have." The money in the second question would pay for a new guidance counselor at Central High School and other new faculty, who would work in basic skills, world languages, technology, reading instruction and other areas.
Mr. Nemeth said that if the base budget and second question were both approved, taxes would go up 10 cents in Hopewell Borough, where, as was noted above, taxes would go up 9 cents if only the base budget is approved. In Hopewell Township, approval of both the base budget and second question would cause school taxes to go down 1 cent, rather than the 2 cents they would go down if only the budget were approved. In Pennington, the school tax would be 18 cents if the second question is approved and 18 cents if it is not.