For school superintendents in New Jersey, this is the time of year when they’re working the numbers from every angle, trying to come up with a balanced budget. But for many districts around the state, the numbers simply don’t add up.
“After using our 2% cap increase that we’re mandated to by the [state] Department of Education, we’re going to be $22.3 million short,” said Michael Citta, superintendent of the Toms River Regional School District. “And that’s coming off the heels of a year where we were already mandated by the state to raise our taxes 10%, or $13 million.”
Toms River finally saw an increase in state aid this year after being on the losing end for the last seven years, but Citta said it’s facing double digit deficits in the millions again.
Plainfield has seen consecutive increases, but Superintendent Rashon Hasan said it’s still not enough and the district is asking residents for a big tax increase for the first time in 6 years to avoid staff layoffs. If the plan is approved, taxpayers will see an 36% increase, or about $850 a year.
“While our school district did see an increase in state aid of roughly $11.8 million, our salaries and benefits have increased by more than $12 million, so that’s really eaten into the increase that we received in state aid,” Hasan said. “That proposal is to impose the 2% tax levy increase which would net us a little more than half a million in increased revenue, but also to utilize what’s known as bank-cap to the tune of roughly $9 million.
“For every year that a school district does not impose the tax levy, what could have been collected in taxes is put away in what’s considered a bank fund and the district has the ability to reclaim those funds for up to three years,” he said.
Some blame the difficulties on the funding caps put in place by the Murphy administration this year, including a limit of 3% on any cuts to a district and 6% on any increases. State Sen. Declan O’Scanlon (R-Monmouth) is introducing a bill to end the caps on increases.
“[Murphy] said we have to slavishly abide by the school funding formula exactly as it’s written,” O’Scanlon said. “We said no, you don’t. We should be reworking this.”
Senate Education Committee chair Sen. Vin Gopal said he, too, would be in favor of removing the cap. But he said he needs to see how the state would pay for it, which is hard to know with looming federal cuts. Earlier this week, the Trump administration announced real cuts, including $85 million in pandemic aid taken back from 20 school districts. O’Scanlon has vowed to fight those cuts, marking one area where he and Murphy agree.
“It’s bad, it’s bad,” he said. “These are largely capital projects. There’s no state, including New Jersey, that can make up for the cuts we’ve seen, or the potential cuts.”
