PENNINGTON: March 16 is target for school budget plan debut

Gov. (Jon) Corzine has pushed back his annual budget address until March 10, meaning state aid figures will be unavailable until then

By John Tredrea, Staff Writer
   Adoption of a tentative school district budget for 2009-10 is expected by mid-March, district spokeswoman JoAnn Meyer said Tuesday.
   A public hearing on the budget probably will be held around April 1, she said.
   ”Like school leaders across the state, Hopewell Valley officials have been working on next year’s budget without the benefit of a schedule — let alone aid figures — from the state,” said Ms. Meyer, the district’s community liaison and director of development.
   ”In previous years, clear deadlines for budget submission were publicized by mid-January with state aid information following shortly thereafter. Gov. (Jon) Corzine has pushed back his annual budget address until March 10, meaning aid figures will be unavailable until then. The delay means local budgets cannot be finalized until sometime after, once budget managers factor in the funding and make the necessary adjustments to their spending plans.
   ”In the meantime, local officials recently were directed by the state to assume there will be no change in their funding level from last year,” Ms. Meyer said..
   She added Interim Superintendent Thomas Butler told the Hopewell Valley Regional Board of Education Monday night that he intends to present a tentative budget at the March 16 meeting. Prior to that, the board will meet in two more public work sessions, Feb. 23 and March 9.
   The preliminary spending plan is due at the office of the county superintendent by March 18. As the agent of the state, the county superintendent must OK budget plans before the local board can finalize them.
   Dr. Butler is proposing the board schedule a public hearing on the plan for the week of March 30. The state requires adoption of a final budget no later than April 3.
   Ms. Meyer said the superintendent acknowledged the quick turnaround time leaves little time to communicate the spending plan to the public so the district will be posting detailed information about next year’s budget to its Web site as soon as the details are finalized.
   School district elections will be held statewide April 21.