Arecent announcement by Gov. Chris Christie will suspend state aid payments to most New Jersey school districts for the remainder of the 2009-10 school year and compel administrators to use their district’s surplus and reserve funds for current operating expenses.
In published reports, Christie said he took the action in order to help close a deficit in the current state budget. He has indicated that state aid for the 2010-11 school year may be reduced from the 2009-10 level of funding as he looks to close a projected deficit in the 2011 state budget.
In the Jackson K-12 School District, the loss of state aid will translate into a $1,574,754 reduction between now and June 30, according to Business Administrator Michelle Richardson.
The district was expecting to receive $52,426,766 in state aid during the 2009- 10 school year (in support of a $137,228,603 school budget), but that state aid amount will now be reduced by $1,574,754, according to the business administrator.
“The district will have to look at every area and put everything on the table for discussion to find ways to sustain this cut, as well as the pending cut to next year’s state aid that is looming from the Governor’s Office,” Richardson told the Tri-Town News this week.
She explained that $990,229 will be taken from the 2008-09 excess surplus and $584,525 will be taken as the 25 percent from other surplus and reserves in order to cover the operating expenses for the remainder of this school year.
The district’s excess surplus of $990,229 was expected to have been placed in the 2010-11 school year budget as a source of revenue and tax relief, as the current law requires.
The $584,525 was expected to have been placed in the 2010-11 budget as well, since the district has historically used any surpluses from one year into the next year for tax relief, according to administrators. Now, the district will no longer have that money to place in the budget for the coming school year.
“We historically rely on being able to apply these surplus funds directly back to the taxpayers in the form of tax relief,” Richardson said. “This loss is significant.”
News reports published on Feb. 17 indicated that Christie has advised school district administrators to prepare for a 15 percent reduction in their state aid for the 2010-11 school year.
The Jackson Board of Education is scheduled to adopt a tentative 2010-11 budget on March 23. A public hearing for the budget is scheduled for March 26. Residents will vote on the spending plan in the April 20 school election.
In Plumsted Township, school district business administrator Frank Gripp said Plumsted is one of 17 school districts in the state that will not be affected by the withholding of state aid during the remainder of the 2009-10 school year.
“We do not have any excess surplus as defined by the state,” Gripp said. “Therefore our state aid for the 2009-10 school year will not be reduced.”