A 4.6 percent increase over the 2004-2005 budget.
By: David Campbell
The West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional Board of Education approved adoption Thursday night of a $136.24 million budget for the 2005-2006 school year.
The budget represents a 4.6 percent increase over the $130 million budget for the current academic year.
Under the 2005-2006 budget, which the board approved by a 9-0 vote, the tax rate in West Windsor Township would rise from $2.54 to $2.57 per $100 of assessed value. The owner of a home assessed at the township average of $239,000 would pay $6,142 in school taxes next year, about $72 more than last year.
In Plainsboro Township, the new tax rate would be $1.42 per $100 of assessed value. The owner of a home assessed at the township average of $395,000 would pay $5,609 in school taxes next year.
Direct comparisons to the current year’s tax rate and average school tax bill are difficult to make in Plainsboro. Properties in the township have undergone a complete reassessment, with the value of an average home more than doubling, from $190,000 to $395,000. At the same time, the tax rate for school purposes currently $2.29 per $100 of assessed valuation would drop by 87 cents to $1.42 per $100 of assessed value.
The 4.6 percent increase under the 2005-2006 budget approved by the board Thursday night is driven largely by a rise in costs related to salaries, benefits and enrollment growth.
However, the district is experiencing a tapering off of growth about 2 percent now compared to about 4 percent annually over the past few years. But the budget reflects the hiring of three new teachers and two new guidance counselors for the district’s two high schools. The total number of administration, education and support staff including all new hires under the 2005-2006 budget would be 1,266.
The spending increase approved by the board is within state budget-cap limits, so a second question to exceed the cap will not appear on the ballot. The 2005-2006 spending plan includes $9.8 million in state and federal aid, about the same as 2004-2005.
A total of $119.54 million in property taxes would be raised under the budget approved by the board Thursday night. Of that, $68.19 million would be collected in West Windsor and $51.35 million in Plainsboro, according to district figures.
Prior to the public hearing, the board made a presentation of the spending plan to elected officials from West Windsor and Plainsboro.
Plainsboro Mayor Peter Cantu said residents in his municipality are facing a large tax increase this year, and he urged district officials to lobby for change at the state level in the way schools are funded.
Mayor Cantu said public school districts statewide have become the "scapegoats" for rising property-tax burdens and face micro-management by the state. He said the larger issue of how schools are funded has to be addressed.
"We’re doing it on the backs of the taxpayers, and that has to change," he said.
West Windsor Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh said, "The school board has done everything they could to make this a reasonable budget."
Mayor Hsueh said he supports property-tax reform to relieve the burden on taxpayers. "Until the state does something about it, we’ll face the same problem year after year," he said. Mayor Cantu has been advocating for such reforms as well.
West Windsor Council Vice President Alison Miller commended the board for its budget in light of enrollment growth and rising salaries and benefits, which she noted are contractually fixed.
"The school board has done an excellent job in keeping their increase modest," said Ms. Miller, who is running for mayor against Mayor Hsueh in the township’s May 10 municipal election.
The 2005-2006 spending plan will now go before district voters on April 19 as part of the school board election ballot.
The joint district has three open seats on the school board, one in Plainsboro and two in West Windsor.
Incumbent board Vice President Patricia F. Bocarsly of Clydesdale Court in Plainsboro is running unopposed for a second term on the board.
Running to fill two open seats in West Windsor are Richard Kaye of Coneflower Lane at the Village Grande community; Randall Tucker of Jill Drive in Princeton Junction; and Adam Shrager of Cambridge Way, also in Princeton Junction.
Each seat carries a three-year term.