Turnout breaks record as locals buck state trend
By Davy James, Staff Writer
South Brunswick voters were in the minority this year, but school district officials are not complaining.
While more than half of school district budgets on the ballot statewide went down to defeat Tuesday, township voters approved South Brunswick’s $131.7 million spending plan 3,199 to 2,858. The 25.45 percent voter turnout was the highest for a school election in the township’s history, according to the township clerk’s office.
”Obviously we’re really pleased that the budget passed under the most adverse circumstances one could imagine,” said Superintendent Gary McCartney. “The people in this community stood up and said we can’t afford to have anymore programs cut from our students.”
The budget is 5.5 percent smaller than in 2009-2010, but increases the school tax rate by 7.5 cents, from $2.605 per $100 of assessed valuation to $2.68.
Under that rate, the owner of a home assessed at the township average of $196,400 can expect to pay about $5,263 in school taxes for the 2010-11 school year.
Out of 24,101 registered voters, 6,133 people voted.
”We’re pleased we had this kind of voter turnout,” Dr. McCartney said. “I can’t ever remember a turnout this high.”
Other district officials praised the public’s understanding of the issues facing the district.
”This was a difficult budget to present to the public,” said Board of Education President Matthew Speesler. “But the public understood what we were trying to do and the value of the cuts we have to make during these tough economic times.”
Voters surveyed who cast their ballots in favor of the budget said they were worried about the future of the district if the budget were to be defeated.
”I don’t want to see our schools start to get worse,” said Dana Metzger, who cast her ballot at the Community Center. “We moved here because of the quality of the schools and it would be a shame if more teachers had to lose their jobs and more programs had to be cut.”
Voters that were surveyed who supported the budget said they were dismayed by Gov. Chris Christie’s tactics and they were concerned about class sizes increasing across the district and programs being cut.
Voters who voted against the budget said their main concern was rising property taxes and they felt the New Jersey Education Association was using fear to try and get budgets passed.
”Property taxes are high enough and we can’t take another increase or its going to become impossible to live in this state,” said Aaron Feldman, who voted at the South Brunswick Senior Center. “The NJEA is using scare tactics and people are trying to say the students are going to suffer with these cuts. I think they could’ve done a better job keeping property taxes down without it affecting the kids.”
While district officials were elated to see the budget pass, they are bracing for another difficult budget next year. Of particular concern is Gov. Christie’s proposed 2.5 percent cap on property tax increases.
”I don’t think there’s any question, with the strong possibility of a 2.5 percent cap, that next year is going to be an enormous challenge,” Dr. McCartney said. “With health care costs rising, energy costs rising and everything else that has a tendency to rise more than 2.5 percent, next year will be an enormous challenge and we’ll have to look at making more reductions. The reductions we made this year, while sad, were necessary and I’m glad we don’t have to cut any further.