Long Walk Home

Tonight was the annual Board of School Estimate vote on the school budget. For those who do not know, South Orange/Maplewood are quite unique by the nature of the joint school district and as a result the school budget is not voted on directly the the residents, but by a "Board of School Estimate", which consists of three elected officials from South Orange, three elected officials from Maplewood and two members of the Board of Education. This year the budget passed unanimously 8-0.

This was my 3rd budget and certainly the most difficult, largely the result of a MASSIVE cut to State Aid by Governor Christie. As a result of the cut, very difficult choices were made by the Administration and Board of Ed to propose a budget with a 3.23% increase in South Orange. Further compounding an increase beyond the original target and beyond the rate of inflation was the fact that this budget delayed the implementation of a technology lab in the Middle School and results in the outsourcing of paraprofessional staff. Certainly any budget that directly impacts people is painful and difficult for everyone involved and not something that anyone relishes. Having been the victim of the budget axe firsthand, I know exactly how it feels. I know it is a minor consolation, but the staff that are being outsourced will be offered a job with the outsourced agency (albeit without health care benefits) and will be reassigned to the District if they so choose.

This is an incredibly frustrating situation all around and the anger can and should be best directed at Trenton for putting the district in a no-win situation. The Superintendent and Board of Ed should be commended for doing the best they could with the limited resources they were provided by the Governor. All School Districts in NJ are dealing with this new harsh reality and in the end I think the decisions that were made were an attempt to minimize the impact on education for the majority of our students. I just now hope that the Teachers Union accepts the zero percent salary increase that was built into this budget, so further cuts are not needed.

Loose Change

It's the peak of Budget season again and there is good news and bad news. The good news is that a tax increase that was once projected at around 29% has been whittled down to "only" 6.8% (so far) at our last Budget Workshop on March 15 without any major cuts. The reduction was mostly due to a recognition of surplus, projected revenue from the new Sterling Properties project and a better than expected tax collection rate.

The bad news is that we learned this week that the new Governor has radically cut State Aid to Municipalities, resulting in an additional cut over of over $400,000, which would theoretically bring the tax increase back up to almost 9%. (To add insult to injury, the Governor also cut state aid to the school district by over 80%, or $5.3M!)

Clearly a 9% Municipal increase is unacceptable under any circumstances (and even more so in this economy).

After a review of all departments, now we are starting to discuss opportunities to reduce costs or increase revenue. At the last Budget Meeting a number of increases to "user fees" were discussed and agreed to. Specifically:

• Increase the cost of Use Permits to $50 (from $0)
• Increase the cost of zoning approvals to $50 (from $0)
• Increase the cost of street opening permits to $138 (from $100)
• Increase the cost of a code reinspection to $50 (from $0)
• Increase the cost of white metal pickup to $75 (from $0)
• Increase the cost of toter delivery to $50 (from $0)
• Increase the cost of mulch/woodchip delivery to $50 (from $0)
• Increase the cost for household bulk pickup to $75 (from $0)

While nobody ever wants costs to rise, it seems only fair to raise the fee for services that are used by those individuals. In addition, many of these services would still likely cost the same (or even more) if contracted for privately.

In the end, these fees add up over the course of a year and should be borne by the people who use these services. We still have a ways to go to refine and reduce the budget further, but the process is underway and we are continuing to try to find creative solutions to our very difficult tax burden.