J'burg council votes 3-2 to uphold school budget BY VINCENT TODARO Staff Writer JAMESBURG- Asplit Borough Council decided last week against cutting the defeated school budget. The council voted 3-2 during its May 7 meeting to uphold the Board of Education's 2008-09 budget. The board's proposal,which called for a school tax increase of $124 on the average home, was rejected during the April school election in a vote of 143-114. Mayor Anthony LaMantia urged the council to refrain from making a cut. He said the council's review of the budget and questioning of school officials revealed that there was no unnecessary spending in the board's proposal. "I feel that the way things are going, they're headed in the right direction for the children, and they need all the help they can get," LaMantia said. The mayor said he believes that if the majority of voters received the education on the budget that borough officials did after it was defeated, they would have approved it at the polls. "I felt the board should have educated the public a little bitmore," he said. "If they told the public what they told us, I think it would have passed." Council members Barbara Carpenter, Joseph Jennings and Otta Kostbar voted against any cut, while Brian Grimes and John Longo Jr. favored a reduction. Councilman Thomas Bodall was not present for the vote. Longo said he wanted to see the tax rate increase reduced by 1 cent, bringing the hike to 9 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. He said he thought the council should respect the will of the voters, even though the budget was narrowly defeated. "Was it a real mandate or not? Regardless, the fact is it went down," he said. Longo felt that a cut could be made in the area of technology. "I wanted a penny cut out, but I thought the budget was pretty tight," Longo said. One cent on the tax rate would have amounted to $25,000 in cuts to the budget. The council members who favored the cut did notwant to affect educational programs, Longo noted. Regardless, he said he was "happy with the process" that the council went through to determine whether a reduction could be made. Despite the disagreement, council members had a good discussion and dialogue, he said. "But I believe when the voters say, 'This is tomuch to handle at this time,'we should reduce the tax," Longo said.