BY ELAINE VAN DEVELDE
Staff Writer
TINTON FALLS — With the recent adoption of the 2005-06 schools budget came the good news of a refund mixed with the bad news of a state-mandated surplus drain that will probably need to be replenished by taxpayer dollars next year.
So, while the $24,607,504, with a tax levy of $15,618,289, will put at least 8 cents per $100 of assessed property value back in taxpayers’ pockets this year, there is bound to be a hike next year to compensate for the district using most of its healthy surplus, said Board of Education President Michael Laffey.
“It balances out in the end,” he said. “But, while we are thrilled to be able to give residents money back and add programs in the mix, we hate losing that fiscal cushion we had to fall back on.”
The district had maintained a surplus of 6 percent of its total budget, or $1.9 million.
Superintendent Leonard Kelpsh has been very strict about keeping a healthy surplus, to the point of doling out pink slips to several staff members in the past two years.
By state law, schools can keep no more than 2.5 percent of the total budget in surplus.
In addition to the budget, the district was set to have two other questions posed to voters on the ballot in April.
Without the questions, a refund of 12.9 cents per $100 was anticipated for Tinton Falls taxpayers and a 3.9-cent decrease for Shrewsbury taxpayers.
However, even with programs added and facilities fixed, they can look forward to at least an 8-cent decrease per $100 of assessed property value from the current rate of $1.498.
In Shrewsbury, taxpayers will see a maximum of a 2-cent increase in the current rate of $1.77.
Those total refunds and small hikes include the prospective approval of one question at the polls in addition to the budget.
“One thing changed between the introduction and adoption of the budget,” Laffey said. “There was a question to add a Spanish teacher to the enhanced world languages program. But after introducing the budget, we got good news that we could put the teacher directly into the budget without any monetary change. It is considered an exception to the cap (limit on spending a certain percentage above last year).”
So, the question that would have cost taxpayers one cent per $100 in both Tinton Falls and Shrewsbury will not be on the ballot.
“And the budget will stay within the 3.1 percent spending cap,” Laffey said. “Only one question will remain. That is to repair the blistering roof at the Mahala F. Atchison School on Sycamore Avenue.”
That question will cost $450,000, or 4 cents per $100 of assessed property value on Tinton Falls’ tax bills and 5 cents on Shrewsbury bills.
Last year, the $23.6 million budget was approved with questions, costing Tinton Falls taxpayers a hike of 11.6 cents.
Since the state passed a law that mandates districts go down from 6 percent of the budget in surplus to the 2.5 percent, “taxpayers in this district will benefit at least for this year. We’re just afraid of what will happen next year, after draining a healthy surplus to follow what we think is a fiscally unsound law,” Kelpsh has said.
There is also an issue of declining enrollment in the district, which accounts for some savings.
Because of the shrinking enrollment, 3.5 positions will be eliminated while programs are added, Kelpsh said in a previous interview.
The student population is roughly in the 1,600s, down a couple of hundred from three years ago when Kelpsh first started his tenure as superintendent.
With this budget, the district will expand its Montessori program from kindergarten to grades one, two and three, boost the elementary foreign languages program to 30 minutes three times a week, and add a pilot keyboarding program.