By: Stephanie Prokop
BORDENTOWN TOWNSHIP The Bordentown Regional School District adopted its 2007-08 budget after a public hearing on March 28, proposing a tax decrease for Bordentown City and Bordentown Township, and a tax increase for residents of Fieldsboro.
Voting will take place from 2 to 9 p.m. on April 17.
The total budget is $35,557,982, which is a 4.3 percent increase from the 2006-07 plan. Of that amount, $25,481,831 will be raised through taxation. The budget includes six new teaching positions for general education, an additional part-time ESL staff member, and two additional special education teachers.
"We were helped this year by additional state aid which we received for the first time in six years," said Superintendent John Polomano. "In addition, we also received Targeted At-Risk Aid because we have full-day kindergarten," he added.
For Bordentown City, the school tax rate will decrease by 19.1 cents per $100 of assessed value from $2.955 to $2.764. The average house assessed in the city is $101,361, meaning a decrease of $193 in school taxes, down from $2,994 to $2,801.
In Fieldsboro, the school tax rate will increase 12.6 cents per $100 of assessed value from $3.008 to $3.134. The average home in Fieldsboro is valued at $86,628, which translates into an increase of about $109. The average assessed house will pay $2,714 in school taxes, up from $2,605 this year.
In Bordentown Township, the school tax rate will decrease 1.6 cents per $100 of assessed value from $2.831 to $2.816. The average assessed home in the township is valued at $132,133, which spells out a tax bill decrease of $20.80. The average assessed home will pay $3,720, down from the $3,741 last year.
The tax impact is different in each community because the state-mandated equalization formula is based on the total taxable amount of property in each sending community in the district.
According to Mr. Polomano, this doesn’t mean that Fieldsboro had more students attending Bordentown Regional, but that it had picked up a larger portion of the share based on the state formula.
"It just worked out that Bordentown Township’s percentage of the property-value formula (which worked out to be about 77 percent) meant that there was about 77 percent of Bordentown Township students in the school, which is coincidence," he added.
Additional information regarding the budget can be found on the district Web site, at www.bordentown.k12.nj.us.
