Keep school-budget vote out of general election

This letter is in response to reports that a proposed bill to move Board of Education elections to become part of the November general elections may be approved by the state Legislature. It has already been overwhelmingly approved by the Assembly and is now in the Senate for a vote to be put into law.

Moving the elections to November would mean that many more voters would come out and vote, and that would be great for our school boards. But in the same bill it states that as long as the annual board budgets are under the 2 percent state cap, excluding pensions and health insurance, there would not be a budget vote needed.

This is totally wrong for two reasons. First, all taxpayers have the right to voice their opinions on how and how much is spent by their school-district boards of education. Presently, if a budget is defeated, the Township Council will then review the budget and request cuts if necessary. So in this case a budget is at least adjusted because it was defeated by the voters. You must also understand that the council could also find that the budget was fine and no cuts are to be made. Secondly, a board knows that it can follow the law and stay at the cap plus the exemptions, and the voters have no say in the matter. There would be no reason to cut expenses or cut costs to help reduce already sky-high property taxes. So each year there will automatically be increases in the school tax, while towns like Monroe were able to keep municipal taxes level for a fewyears and then a institute a minor 1.5 cent per hundred increase last year, and our school tax was increased 21 cents per hundred.

Again it shows that our elected officials in Trenton care nothing about the effect on the hardworking residents of New Jersey. Please contact your representatives in the Senate to keep the vote on school budgets … it is our constitutional right.

Mark Klein Member Monroe Township Board of Education