Chesterfield school tax rate reduced by 2 cents.
By: Scott Morgan
CHESTERFIELD School and township officials last week agreed to shave $58,500 from the district’s defeated 2006 budget, thus green lighting a plan that will knock 2 cents off the school tax rate.
Superintendent Constance Bauer said the school board identified three areas emergency surplus allocations, supplies and special education that could be trimmed without any expected detrimental effects.
Dr. Bauer said the board proposed cutting $27,474 not used from the emergency fund, $10,000 earmarked predominantly for computer equipment (money she said she hopes will be replaced through a federal rural Education and Achievement Program, or REAP, grant), $17,000 from special education and some miscellaneous cuts to reduce the weight of the $4.42 million budget shot down by voters on April 18.
On April 27, the board presented its case to the Township Committee, which agreed to the school’s cuts. Committeeman Larry Durr last week said that the board did a good job finding areas it could trim and wholly supported the amended budget.
The net effect of the trim is a savings of 2 cents per $100 of assessed property value for taxpayers. The owner of the average assessed township property, $212,000, would have received a school tax bill of $3,025 had the original budget gone through, based on the proposed tax rate of $1.427 per $100. The amended budget carries a tax rate of $1.406, which spells a bill of $2,980 to that owner. That is $45 less than the proposed tax rate, but still about $300 more than last year’s final tax rate.
Once defeated, a school budget must go before the municipality (or municipalities) represented by a school system. The municipal government is responsible for ensuring that the defeated budget is worked into an acceptable plan, a process that usually involves cuts.
The Township Committee approved the district’s redrawn budget on April 27. The school board submitted the amended budget to the Burlington County Board of Education, which will decide the fate of the budget over the next few weeks.

