CHART: COST PER VOTE
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Did you vote in the school board election? (It was last month.)

Extra credit for those with their hands raised. For the rest of you, well, at least you've got plenty of company.

Just 15.7 percent of New Jersey voters chose Board of Education candidates and weighed in on local school budgets -- rejecting 47 percent, the most in a decade.

Low turnout and whopping budget defeats have given an old idea new legs: Get rid of automatic budget votes, and move school board elections to the regular Election Day in November.

"We have too many elections," said state Sen. Shirley Turner, D-Mercer, sponsor of a bill that was approved by the Senate Education Committee last month.

Her proposal would eliminate votes on school budgets that stay under state-imposed growth caps. And it would move school board elections from April to the general election day in November, with the intent of increasing voter turnout and trimming election costs. That proposal is similar to a perennial bill proposed by ranking Republican state Sen. Leonard Lance of Hunterdon County.

Both ideas have gained momentum in a crushing budget year, fueled by last month's results at the polls.

"So many budgets went down, and so few people participated," Turner said. "We need to save money, and we're looking at every way possible to do that."

State Sen. Joseph Roberts, D-Camden, included the proposed move in the so-called "CORE" reform package he is championing. CORE is intended to streamline government.

Fear of politics

Advocates for school board members and public school teachers support the move to abolish votes for budgets under state caps. But neither group supports moving school board elections to November, citing fears that the campaigns would be co-opted by party-line battles.

School budgets are the only public spending that taxpayers directly vote on, leading some officials to worry that anger over sky-high property taxes may be fueling budget defeats, rather than specific disagreement over school spending.

"When voters become frustrated, this is the only vote in which they can take out their frustrations," said Mike Yaple, a spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards Association. He noted that just a handful of states vote on school budgets, including New Jersey, New York, New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont.

"The state sets a cap, and school boards operate under the cap. It doesn't seem to follow to put it out to a public vote," he said.

Turner's bill would allow voters to weigh in on proposed spending over the budget cap, but not the base budget itself.

Even when a budget is defeated, cuts are limited. The biggest chunk of school district spending is dedicated to union-negotiated salary and benefit packages, which are largely off-limits to cuts. Plus, the local municipal council may adopt the budget without any cuts. If there are cuts, the Board of Education can appeal.

The state School Boards Association also opposes moving school elections to November because "the effect of party politics would be magnified," Yaple said. Nationwide, about 90 percent of school boards are officially non-partisan, according to the National School Boards Association. About 47 percent of elections are not held on general election days, part of a long-standing tradition to keep school boards separate from party-line politics.

"It's wise to keep board members elected in April," said Lynn Maher, spokeswoman for the New Jersey Education Association, which represents public school teachers. "For the most part, school board elections are non-partisan, and they tend to be more issue-oriented -- as it should be."

Proponents of the move disagree.

"You're really kidding yourself if you think that there aren't already partisan politics in school board elections," said Gregg Edwards, president of the conservative Center for Public Policy Research of New Jersey. "I would argue that partisan politics is a lot healthier than what happens now," which he described as single-issue battles among candidates who disproportionately represent teacher interests.

Statewide, about 9 percent of school campaign contributions were from political parties, and 40 percent were from donors with ties to the NJEA, according to a 2002 report by the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission, which analyzed data from 1990, 1995 and 2000.

Some 20 school districts statewide -- including Trenton, New Brunswick and East Orange -- have officially opted out of elections and have mayor-appointed boards.

For the 549 districts with elected boards, moving the vote to November would almost certainly boost voter turnout. Holding school board elections on the same day as a national or statewide election increases turnout by 18 percent, according to the National School Boards Association.

The Senate bill is in part described as a cost-saving initiative. But neither the Legislature nor the School Boards Association has formally studied the cost.

Regardless of how many people show up, districts must advertise, hire poll workers and police officers, rent voting machines and pay for the votes to be tallied and certified.

Cost per voter

Last month, school districts in Bergen County spent $3.23 per participating voter, on average. The total bill countywide was $301,000, with 93,307 people voting. Passaic County districts spent $8.35 per participating voter, on average. The total bill countywide was $265,000, with 31,790 voters taking part. Final costs for districts in Morris and Hudson counties are not yet available.

Whether that's a good investment depends on whom you're talking to. Taxpayers in Englewood spent $14,052 to cast ballots for their school board last month, six years after soundly voting to switch from an appointed to an elected school board.

But taxpayers in tiny Rockleigh didn't spend a penny, after paying for elections in which perhaps a dozen voters turned out. Rockleigh voters approved switching to a mayor-appointed school board last year.

E-mail: carroll@northjersey.com

School projects need $5.4B
Friday, May 26, 2006

By TOM HESTER Jr.
ASSOCIATED PRESS

TRENTON -- The state would need $5.4 billion to revive 97 school construction projects stalled when the state's school construction agency ran out of money, the agency's chief told lawmakers Thursday, though he cautioned it was a rough guess.

Scott Weiner, interim head of the New Jersey Schools Construction Corp., said the agency needed time to prioritize projects and solidify plans and costs before beginning construction anew.

Weiner said the SCC will make a recommendation to Gov. Jon S. Corzine in August. He emphasized he had little confidence in the $5.4 billion estimate and said inexact estimates helped lead to the agency spending $8.6 billion previously without finishing its job.

"We are trying as hard as we can to avoid that," Weiner said.

But Sen. Ron Rice and Assemblyman Craig Stanley, co-chairmen of a joint public schools committee, pushed during a special hearing to quickly restart the projects, with Rice especially demanding action.

"I am very adamant about this year," Rice said.

Rice cast doubts on the SCC's inability to provide a precise estimate and argued that the summer construction season will be lost and construction costs will increase if projects aren't quickly revived.

"To say we cannot calculate those dollars, to me it's not correct," said Rice, a Newark Democrat who has proposed having the state borrow about $3 billion to jump-start the construction program.

Rice demanded the SCC provide reliable cost estimates and other data to the committee within three weeks, but Weiner remained cautious.

"We're still refining and scrubbing these numbers," he said, calling the $5.4 billion estimate "rough at best."

But Rice insisted the administration cannot wait.

"There are many who feel that Gov. Corzine has been helpful in reforming the SCC, but there are also many of us who feel he's a barrier to the process of getting these schools started this year," Rice said.

The Corzine administration was unmoved.

"No additional monies should be authorized until we can be certain the funds are spent appropriately and wisely and that they are used for the purposes for which they were intended," Corzine spokesman Anthony Coley said.

But Stanley, also a Newark Democrat, said already-implemented SCC management and oversight reforms means projects can indeed proceed without such concerns.

"We are stopping progress," Stanley said.

Of the $8.6 billion provided to the SCC by the state, $6 billion was for schools in the state's poorest school districts.

But the SCC, created in 2002 under Supreme Court order to provide new schools in the 31 poorest districts, has been plagued by management and oversight problems.

Government reports found waste and potential fraud, and 315 school projects were shelved after the SCC spent all its money.

Earlier this year, state officials estimated that it would cost at least $12.8 billion to complete all 315 projects.

Ninety-seven of the 315 had design work suspended, and Weiner said those projects would be the first to move forward if additional money is provided by the Legislature.

Assemblywoman Jennifer Beck, R-Mercer and Monmouth counties, said not everyone supports spending more money.

She said she heard from angry residents during a Wednesday night meeting in West Windsor, which is considered among the state's wealthier districts.

"There is no stomach in the general public to provide additional funding at this point, both from property tax issues and the waste, fraud and abuse that has gone on," Beck said.

Weiner and Barry Zubrow, chairman of the SCC's board of directors, listed various reforms implemented at the SCC in recent months, including plans to rework its governance and how it buys sites, plans projects and awards contracts.

Zubrow said none of the reforms would prove a "silver bullet," but said it should make the SCC more efficient.

"We are seeking to create clear lines of management accountability and board oversight," Zubrow

Said.

The Daily Record 5-24-06

Assembly Speaker aims to scale back size of government

Proposes shared services, reforms for property tax relief to aid N.J. residents

BY MICHAEL DAIGLE
DAILY RECORD

PARSIPPANY -- Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts said Tuesday that a series of bills to be prepared over the summer will help cut the size of government in New Jersey.

Without changes in the way governments consolidate services, Roberts said, "there can be no property tax relief."

His aim is for the Assembly to begin work in September to reform the laws that nowinhibit municipalities, counties and schools to share services.

Roberts, a Democrat, speaking to the editorial board of the Daily Record, said the planned legislation would replace the current 337 separate laws on the topic with a "single uniform modern law authorizing the consolidation and sharing of services among and between local governmental units."

He proposed to change the use of the state's municipal block grant program, which in the past was used as an inducement to share serves, so that the state would only send money to municipalities that showed government efficiencies.

Among the proposals, Roberts said are:

• Changes in Civil Service rules for towns that seek to merge services.

• New broad duties for county school superintendents toenable them to be involved in local school budgets and other decisions.

• Elimination of the state's 23 nonoperating school districts within a year.

• Authorize referendums that would create K-12 school districts.

nReform the state's school funding formula.

• End pension practices that boost payouts.

• Move school board and fire district elections to November.

• Eliminate public voting on school budgets that are under the state budget growth cap.

• Require all municipalities to post annual budgets and details of employment contracts on a website.

Roberts said 26 states hold school board elections in November.

Morris perspective

Morris County Republican Freeholder Frank Druetzler said Roberts should be commended for putting forth the proposals. He called the budding reform effort "good news."

Druetzler has called for the elimination of the nonoperating school districts, such as Victory Gardens, more than once.

"If they cannot eliminate those districts, there is no chance to reform government,"he said.

Druetzler said he has called for the elimination of the county school superintendents because the job duplicates work done in Trenton. He said if the job had real authority to supervise local schools, he would reconsider.

Roberts said the time to change the county school superintendents' job is now because 15 of the 21 superintendents are up for reappointment at the end of the year. It is the time, he said, to replace those office holders with new "super"county superintendents who would be appointed by the governor. Roberts said Gov. Jon S. Corzine supports this plan.

'New' superintendents

The county superintendents would be required to show progress in shared service agreements as a condition of a 2-year contract, and would not be allowed to leave the county job for another school job in the same county.

Roberts said a school aid reform and accountability task force of legislators and the public would be formed and expected to recommend by September an "equitable and adequate"new public school funding formula that reflects a community's ability to pay for its schools, among other tasks.

He said that any discussion on school funding must involve how to fund schools in the 31 Abbott districts and the reform of the School Construction Corporation, which is under investigation for waste and fraud.

Roberts said he would not approve any money for the SCC until adequate safeguards are in place, and said it might be time to consider funding the Abbott districts at a state average cost per student, rather than at levels measured in the richest school districts.

Pensions, too

The reforms also include enacting pension system changes suggested by Corzine's benefits review task force that would return the state pension system to its original purpose, funding the retirements of career employees, not those of political appointees.

Corzine called for pension reform in the 2007 state budget, including the elimination of pension credit for professional services, the use of multiple public jobs to boost pensions, and capping sick leave at $15,000 for all public employees, Roberts said.

The system has to change, Roberts said, "because the status quo is expensive."