Our View

Council does right by voters
in ordering a leaner budget

Sayreville municipal officials should be commended for answering residents’ call to cut the school budget. A decision made last week by the Borough Council to reduce spending in the borough’s school district by $2 million shows that local officials took the message of the voters seriously.

Residents turned down the school budget in the April 15 election by a vote of 1,721 to 1,159. Borough officials considered the vote a mandate, which is exactly what it is.

In other communities covered by Greater Media Newspapers, we have seen many governing bodies take a very different, less sincere approach to the task of reviewing a defeated school budget. Many municipal officials wrongly dismiss the school election results as something other than the voice of their constituents because there was a low percentage of voters casting ballots. They then give the budget a quick rubber stamp. Others merely make a "token cut" in order to get themselves off the hook.

In Sayreville, 14 percent of registered voters participated in the April 15 election — meaning less than one-fifth of the voting population made a decision on behalf of the community. The low percentage shouldn’t matter, and apparently didn’t, as the mayor and council realized the proposed school tax was too high.

The school tax rate, as proposed by the Board of Education, would have increased by 13 percent, from $1.79 to $2.03 per $100 of assessed valuation. That would mean the owner of a home assessed at the average in Sayreville would pay $331 more next year than in the current year.

We realize the school board is dealing with growing, fixed costs and stagnant state aid, but with the present economy, the tax hike is just way too much for many to handle.

As Mayor Kennedy O’Brien said, "That was too bitter a pill for the residents of Sayreville to swallow."

Residents will still see an increase, but with the democratic process in check, they will at least get what they ordered: a leaner budget.