By Joyce Blay
Staff Writer
JACKSON — Voters last week rejected the Board of Education’s proposed 2003-04 $108 million budget with its 17.5-cent tax rate increase.
The budget will now be reviewed by the Township Committee, which can negotiate cuts to the spending plan with the board or leave the budget as the board proposed it.
The budget was defeated by a vote of 2,776 votes against the spending plan to 1,743 votes in favor of the package.
With a 17.5-cent increase per $100 of assessed valuation, the owner of a home assessed at $150,000 would have paid $262 more in school taxes in the coming year.
In the weeks before the April 15 election, the board cut its initial proposed budget of $109.2 million by $633,000, reducing a projected tax increase of 18.87 cents to the 17.5-cent increase that was presented to the voters.
"The size of the increase was the pivotal reason it was defeated, as well as the poor economic times," said Superinten-dent of Schools Thomas Gialanella. "It’s not that there was fat in the budget, but because Jackson is not receiving the state aid it should, that placed a burden on the taxpayer."
Gialanella addressed the defeat of four incumbents on the board as well, which he attributed to the rejection by voters of the budget and its 17.5-cent increase.
"The budget had a burden of 17.5 cents, and the incumbents had a burden of 17.5 cents," he said. "That’s an issue that incumbents face when the budget has to increase to that level."
Ironically, that is the same issue that will confront the new board members when they take their seats on the board at the combination reorganization and redis-tricting meeting to be held on April 28.
Although the defeated budget will be sent to the town’s governing body for possible reductions, the winners of last week’s school election spoke about their strategies for reducing the onus on taxpayers in the future.
"We have to change the way we fund education through the real estate tax," said board member-elect Marvin Krakower. "If we work with the community, our assemblymen and our state senators, we can change it."
Addressing the problem at the state level was also the way board member-elect John Morvay thought it best to reduce Jackson taxpayers’ financial obligation toward funding the education of the town’s school children.
"One of our goals will be to unite with other towns to lobby the government for more state funding," he said.