By Kristine Snodgrass, Staff Writer
ROCKY HILL — The Borough Council this week voted to conduct a study into the tax implications of a possible merger or regionalization of its school district.
The borough pays about $1.3 million tuition each year to send almost 100 children of residents to Montgomery Township Schools, Mayor Ed Zimmerman said.
But it and other nonoperating school districts are under pressure from state and county officials to merge with another district, which in Rocky Hill’s case would be Montgomery.
It is one of two such districts in Somerset County — the other is Millstone — and 23 statewide.
At its meeting Monday night, the council unanimously passed a resolution to enter into a professional services agreement with law firm Lindabury, McCormick Estabrook & Cooper to conduct the study at a cost of $3,000.
”It is our intention to do what is best for our community and our children,” Mayor Zimmerman said. “While the governor’s intent of the merger is to lower property taxes, logic tells us otherwise. We believe this study will give us a more accurate picture of the outcome. We also strongly believe that the taxpayers should have a say in this, otherwise, if the property taxes were to go up as a result, it would be just another unfunded mandate from Trenton.”
At the meeting, the council agreed while it does not have jurisdiction over the school board, it has a responsibility to its residents to assess the property tax implications of losing the school board and the nonoperating district, he said.
”We don’t know if taxes are going to go up or down… I’m not prejudging what the results are going to be,” Mayor Zimmerman said.
The results of the study are expected within a few weeks and will be made available to residents, he said.
The council also is considering adding a nonbinding referendum to the November ballot to get a sense of whether residents approve or disapprove of such a merger.
”Notwithstanding what the numbers are, I’d like to give it to our voters to tell us what they want to do,” he said.
The cost originally was included in the school board’s budget, but Somerset County officials told the board it must remove the cost in order to receive its approval, Mayor Zimmerman said.
Rocky Hill maintains its own Board of Education, whose responsibilities include overseeing finances, arranging transportation, arranging some special education and advocating for the borough’s children in Montgomery schools. There is no seat on the Montgomery Board of Education to represent Rocky Hill students.
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