LEDGER EDITORIAL
Four weeks from today, a relative handful of New Jersey voters will show up at the polls and decide not only who will serve on local boards of education for the next year but how much money they’ll be allowed to spend.
We have noted in the past how unfair it is to subject school budgets and only school budgets to voter approval. In New Jersey, municipal and county budgets are adopted by elected representatives, and the state budget is approved by the Legislature. But the local school budget, which makes up the largest portion of a homeowner’s property-tax bill, is submitted to voters in referendum every April. And in a typical year, about 15 percent of registered voters or about one out of every 10 New Jersey adults eligible to cast a ballot bother to show up at the polls.
Despite this paltry turnout, when times are good, there are usually a sufficient number of parents, teachers and supportive taxpayers to get the school budget passed.
But when times are bad, and taxpayers have nowhere else to turn to vent their frustration, the local school budget is not just a convenient target it’s the only target. Then, even in our most affluent communities, there are often enough taxpayers who have been adversely affected by the economy, or are living on fixed incomes, or are otherwise inclined to exercise their only opportunity to vote against raising taxes, to doom the local school budget to defeat.
Just look at the numbers. From 1998 to 2000, as the economy boomed, the statewide approval rate for school budgets reached extraordinary heights: 74.6 percent in 1998, 82.8 percent in 1999 and 88 percent in 2000. Compare these results with the approval rates during the last recession: 62.1 percent in 1989, 52 percent in 1990 and 55.9 percent in 1991.
And here are some disquieting numbers. In 2001, after three years of steady growth, the approval rate statewide fell back seven points, from 88 percent to 81 percent.
And here’s a more disquieting number: For the 2002-2003 school year, local school districts will receive the same amount of state aid they are receiving this year, which means every additional dollar of school spending must be raised through property taxes.
All in all, this is shaping up as a tough year for school districts all across the state, and our local district appears to be no exception. In 2002-03, taxpayers may face a tax increase and a referendum. As attention starts to turn in the next month to the candidates running for our local school board, supporters of our public schools need to keep in mind that there’s another important decision voters will be making April 16 a decision none of us can afford to take for granted.