Tax increase does not farewell with Jamesburg residents.
By: Rebecca Tokarz
JAMESBURG Some residents aren’t happy with a proposed 2003-2004 school budget that carries an 8.2 percent increase in school taxes.
During a March 27 school board meeting, many residents said they planned to vote down the plan, which carries a proposed tax rate increase of 43-cents per $100 of assessed valuation, in order to send a message to the state about a need for funding.
Others said a 75-cent tax hike over a two-year period 43 cents for next year and 32 cents for the current year is too much to handle.
A handful of residents said they would deal with the increase, but called for the school board to make more cuts so after-school programs and recreational activities such as basketball and soccer stay alive at the schools.
"It (taxes) has now become unmanageable. I have turned my own budget inside and out," Cheryl Summers said, about how she has tried to deal with an increasing tax bill. She said a proposed hike in school taxes, in addition to paying municipal taxes, makes a steep hike hard to swallow. "As much as I want to, I don’t see that as a possibility."
The school board unanimously approved the $10.24 million spending plan March 27, an increase of $777,430 over the current $9.46 million school budget. The plan will go to voters at school elections April 14.
Superintendent of Schools Richard Ballard said the current spending plan has been reviewed to every extent possible.
"This current budget is the most scrutinized operational budget. The present budget has been reviewed, scrutinized and squeezed," he said.
Mr. Ballard said that as much as it hurts the school board, a 43-cent increase is necessary "if we are going to operate the schools at almost the same level as this year."
The plan carries a tax of $2.64 per $100 assessed valuation, a 43-cent increase over last year’s rate of $ 2.21. If approved, the owner of a house assessed at the borough average of $123,000 would pay $3,247 in school taxes, an increase of $529.
Last year’s budget rose by 32-cents after Borough Council made additional cuts after it was voted down by residents 164 to 111.
According to state law, when a school budget is defeated, it is turned over to the municipal government for review. The council can either make a reduction, an increase or leave it as is. State law dictates that the council makes the dollar-amount cuts and the board decides where the cuts are made.
In addition, a $70,000 increase in the cost of teacher health benefits and an extra $70,000 to cover special education tuition for eight out-of-district placements forced the district to lay off eight staff members, including four teachers, in October 2002 in an attempt to offset a $228,000 budget shortfall.
State aid figures increased to $3.55 million this year, up $59,790 from the 2002-2003 amount. Federal and other aids and revenue for 2003-2004, excluding the tax levy, is $445,135, a 12.5 percent decrease from the current year’s $511,121.
School board Budget Committee Chairman Frank Hand said the controllable parts of the budget, including co-curricular activities, school administration and other general expenses were either held neutral or decreased for next year.
But, increases in uncontrollable costs like health insurance coverage and out-of-district tuition to send students to Monroe Township High School and out-of-district special education students are what is causing the increase in the school budget.
Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein was able to find $22,000 in unused state funding that allowed Jamesburg to keep one of the laid off resource room teachers in the classroom through June.
However, to cope with the increasing costs, the district has no plans to reinstitute any of the positions they cut last year. In fact, the district plans to move its current librarian, which splits time between Grace M. Breckwedel and John F. Kennedy schools, into the classroom next year.
In addition, the board has cut after-school activities and recreational opportunities for students, such as soccer, basketball, school trips, the safety club and homework hotline, Mr. Hand said.
"We have tried to maintain the budget as much as possible. If we could cut, we did," he said.
School officials said should they be asked to cut more from the budget, they would be cutting into educational programming.
Board members said they understood the concerns presented by residents, but said little could be done to shave the spending plan.
According to the budget, the district will spend $619,808 more next year for out-of-district student placements, up from $3.47 million. That includes special education students and MHS students.
Part of that increase comes from the district’s need to accommodate eight additional out-of-district special education students next year.
Under the proposed budget, the district anticipates spending $801,969 in personnel services, a large part of which is health benefits, up 32 percent or $196,787 from the current budget.
"We were clobbered in our health benefits," Mr. Hand said of current spending plan. "It will continue to hurt us."
Resident Bill Luedtke said he understood that residents would have to support the plan, but at the same time, he said the district was going about it in the wrong manner.
"I know we’re going to have to pay this burden. I need to make sure we’re going to make sure we’re getting the best education possible," he said.
Mr. Luedtke said the board should consider cutting from other areas in order to provide after-school and recreational activities.
Some residents said they planned on voting down the budget in part because of the exhaustive tax increase, but also to a message to the state about state funding.
Resident Jim Martin said the borough will lose a core of its senior citizen residents because they will be unable to afford the tax hike. He said he plans to vote against the budget to send a message.
"We’re going to vote it down. Our reason is to get word down to the state," he said.
Mr. Martin also asked the school board what it could do to tighten its spending plan.
"The state is eventually going to help," he said prior to suggesting the whole town walk on Trenton to protest.
Former school board member Margaret DiGangi said when she first saw the amount of the proposed tax hike, she told her husband they were moving.
Ms. DiGangi asked the school board for a line-item budget so she could see for herself that the budget could not be cut anymore.
"Please don’t tell me there is no fat in this," she said. "I want to see a line-item budget so I can tell myself I think it’s fair."
Others expressed concern over the cost of sending children out of district, including the existing partnership between Jamesburg and Monroe.
School officials said the district would save little or no money if the state allowed for the termination of its sending district relationship with Monroe, citing possible increases in transportation costs that could be incurred as well as the possibility that tuition costs might be greater than what they are spending now.
Board members said they sympathized with residents, but asked them to consider the educational programs that will be cut should the budget fail.
"It’s unbearable 32-cents and then 43-cents, we’re going to pay the same as you," school board President Don Peterson said. "We are here to educate the kids. This is a bare bones budget with no programs."
Mr. Peterson said the school board has done what it could by meeting with the legislators at the governor’s office to ask for financial assistance. The only other option is for residents to show their displeasure over increases by writing to legislators urging them to support a special session of the Legislature to talk about achieving property tax reform.
The school board drafted a letter to legislators and offered copies to the more than 35 members of the public at the meeting.
According to the letter, "The state’s system of financing public schools should enable all local school districts to provide an equal educational opportunity for all children."
Mr. Peterson urged residents to take a copy of the letter, photocopy it three times and hand it out to their friends.
"This is the only way we’re going to be able to address educational funding problems," he said.