A s it has for many local communities, the closure of Fort Monmouth is having an impact on the Monmouth Regional High School District.
Maria Parry, business administrator for the regional school district, said in an interview last week that due to declining enrollment, the district lost more than $482,000 in state aid.
“We have had a steady drop in enrollment, and they look at the enrollment since 2006,” she said. “The drop is about 35 students per year, and you can see that enrollment did decrease each year.”
The Monmouth Regional Board of Education approved a $24.7 million spending plan during the March 27 meeting that includes a $19.1 million tax levy and factors in $3.2 million in state aid. Overall, the budget increased $529,516 over last year and the tax levy is up $375,128,whichrepresentsa2percentincrease, the state-mandated limit.
The Monmouth Regional School District educates 1,010 students from the three sending towns of Eatontown, Tinton Falls and Shrewsbury Township.
The tax rate for Eatontown residents will decrease by less than a cent from last year’s 0.398 cents per $100 of assessed value to 0.393 cents per $100, Parry explained.
Although the budget calls for an overall tax increase, Eatontown residents can expect to see a reduction in their regional school tax bill.
In total, Eatontown residents are being asked to shoulder roughly 41.3 percent of the 2012-13 budget, a reduction from last year’s 44.1 percent.
Taxpayers in Tinton Falls and Shrewsbury Township, however, are being asked to carry more of the budget, with Tinton Falls residents paying for 57.2 percent of the spending plan, up from last year’s 54.4 percent.
Taxpayers in Shrewsbury Township, meanwhile, are being asked to pay 1.35 percent of the budget, an increase over last year’s 1.21 percent.
Accordingly, the tax rate for Eatontown residents will decrease from last year’s 39.3 cents per $100 of assessed value to 37.3 cents per $100.
For the owner of an Eatontown home assessed at the borough average of $310,000, the tax rate decrease results in a $60.94 reduction in district taxes and a total tax bill of $1,158.45.
Tinton Falls residents will see the largest increase in taxes under the 2012- 13 spending plan. With a tax rate increase of 4.2 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, the owner of a home assessed at the Tinton Falls average of $306,155 will pay an additional $129.19 annually in taxes to support Monmouth Regional.
Tinton Falls taxpayers will pay approximately $1,215.97 in taxes for the high school with a tax rate of 39.7 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.
Like Tinton Falls, Shrewsbury Township, with the smallest enrollment of the three sending communities, will pay more in taxes to Monmouth Regional, with tax rates increasing from 31.2 cents per $100 of assessed valuation to 35.6 cents per $100 for taxpayers.
For the owner of a Shrewsbury Township home valued at the township average of $204,629, the spending plan results in a tax increase of $90.37 for a total annual tax bill of $728.74.
Parry said the regional district was able to offset the loss of state aid by increasing the potential of certain revenue line items.
“No programs were eliminated. What I did was we looked at certain account lines, we added additional revenues to the budget,” she said.
“We rent out our performing arts center and we derive ‘x’ number of dollars of income,” she added. “[We] didn’t increase the fees, [we] increased the potential.”
Although residents voted in 2011 in favor of the spending plan, the district took advantage of a new state law to bypass the public vote as long as the tax levy increase is within the state-mandated 2 percent cap.
Parry said the board’s decision to bypass the public vote led to a less stressful budget process.
“This decision to move the vote is a very big change because for over 100 years the tax levy has been voted on,” she said. “It has been a very different experience, but for me, overall, it has been a positive.
“We still had to hold a public hearing, we still had our statutory deadline,” she added.