School officials fear
another tax increase
Officials await
word from state
on 2003-04 budget aid
BY TARA PETERSEN
Staff Writer

JAMESBURG — School officials are reviewing a school budget that may carry another tax increase while they await news regarding state aid.

"Everything is based on the aid we get," School Business Administrator Tom Reynolds said Tuesday. "If they give me the same aid [as last year], every increase in my budget goes back to the taxpayers or we have to look at program cuts or find other ways to fund things."

According to Reynolds, the state has kept school aid to Jamesburg frozen for two consecutive years. The school tax rate rose 41 cents per $100 of assessed valuation to support the 2003-04 school year. The year before, it rose 32 cents.

Taxpayers with a home assessed at the borough average of $123,000 saw a tax increase of $504 last year; $393 the year before that. The school district has also been forced to cut staff members in order to lessen the tax burden.

Reynolds said the district received about $3.5 million in state aid last year for the district’s $10.2 million budget.

"If aid remains the same again, we’ll be in the same boat again," Reynolds said.

Reynolds said that preliminary numbers indicate that expenses would go up by about $260,000 over last year.

"[The increase is] from tuition increases, special education costs, salary increases, transportation increases and a 3 to 5 percent increase across the board," Reynolds said. "Fuel has gone up, heating and electric has gone up. Everything has gone up."

Reynolds, however, said he has no idea what taxpayers will end up paying this year until the budget is adopted and state aid figures are known.

"I’m not going to speculate," Reynolds said. "It’s not my call, it’s the Board of Education’s call."

Reynolds said he expects the state to hold off on sending school districts the last state aid payment of the year for the second year in a row, further exacerbating the problem.

Councilman Chris Maloney, liaison to the school board, said last week that the preliminary numbers looked grim.

"Barring a substantial increase in state aid, we’re going to see a very substantial [tax] increase for the schools again," Maloney said.

Tuition paid to Monroe is expected to increase from $12,260 to $13,007 per student, according to Maloney. The number of students sent to Monroe High School may also increase slightly. Jamesburg educates its own K-8 students at its two schools.

"They are looking to budget for 215 students. They had 212 last year. That, together with the tuition [per student] increase, means an increase of $197,385 just for tuition," Maloney said.

Since the school board as a whole has not yet had a chance to review the numbers, Maloney said, all figures are "subject to change."

One increase that the borough is trying to avoid is the state-mandated tuition adjustment once Monroe bonds for an $83 million high school construction project.

Mayor Tony LaMantia said last fall that he would fight an increase due to that project because Jamesburg did not get to vote on the referendum, and because the borough had little to no impact on the enrollment growth.

"We will probably end up paying a portion of the cost," Maloney said. "Tony argued in front of the Assembly because, for one, we didn’t have a say [on passing the referendum]. It doesn’t make sense that we get hit with that."

Reynolds said there would likely be a motion to submit the budget at the board’s March 4 meeting, and a public hearing will be held on or about March 25.