| Property Taxes, School Funding issues | ||||||||||||
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1-20-07 Information - CAPs legislation & major negative impact on property taxes due to lack of state aid in recent past
Corzine demands measure banning dual office holding Governor links it to fate of property tax package Saturday, January 20, 2007 BY DUNSTAN McNICHOL Star-Ledger Staff Gov. Jon Corzine pressed the Legislature yesterday to ban dual office holding, telling key lawmakers he "would have trouble signing" any property tax reform package without it, according to two officials familiar with the continuing negotiations. Corzine made his feelings known after language prohibiting dual office holding -- the practice of elected officials holding more than one elected post at a time -- was removed from a bill (S-16) scheduled for a vote in the Senate on Monday, according to an administration official and a legislative official who both asked not to be identified because the talks are still in progress. Democrats from Hudson County, where four of nine state lawmakers hold second elected offices, have led the opposition to the ban, which is aimed to help rein in pension and health benefits. Both Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex) and Corzine have stated publicly they are committed to enacting a ban on dual office holding sometime this year. "We will get a real opportunity to correct some of the other things that I've heard people complain about, (like) dual office holding. ... We'll push on it," Corzine said while standing next to New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer at an unrelated event in Hoboken. When Codey last week removed the language banning dual office holding, he said the issue would be revisited later this year. "That's an issue that we've got to talk about more," Codey said last week, adding it's "going to get done." Yesterday, Codey said Corzine has not told him the dual office ban is a condition of getting the property tax reforms signed. Also on the property tax relief effort, draft versions of the plan to limit property tax growth to 4 percent annually were changed yesterday to include a number of exemptions that would let towns and school districts spend over the proposed limit. For example, spending on growth in the cost of providing health care coverage to employees, cuts in state aid, debt service on local borrowing and future increases in pension contributions could exceed the 4 percent annual spending cap. Mayors also could ask the state for approval to boost taxes beyond the cap to cover soaring energy costs and spending considered necessary to "protect and promote the health, safety and welfare." School officials would be allowed to exceed the cap for school busing on dangerous routes, insurance cost increases and exceptional special education costs, the draft proposals say. In all, two dozen exemptions were added to the latest version, to be introduced in the Senate. The proposals were welcomed by lobbyists for mayors and school officials, who have balked at the prospect of a state-mandated limit on local spending. "It sounds like they have finally taken the time to look at the kinds of fiscal realities that confront local government," said William Dressel, executive director of the New Jersey State League of Municipalities. "In no way, shape or form does this mean local government still is not going to have difficulties, but it certainly goes along way in helping the fiscal realities of local budget makers," he said. Lynne Strickland, executive director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools, likewise approved the broad array of proposed exemptions. "It sounds as if there's a voice of reason being heard here," she said. Corzine has insisted lawmakers impose a cap before he will approve their plan to spend $2 billion providing property tax credits of up to 20 percent for homeowners earning up to $200,000. The tax credit would roughly equal the boost in local taxes residents of some of New Jersey's poorest communities have felt because of the state's decision to freeze state school aid since 2002, a new Rutgers University report shows. According to the study by Ernest C. Reock Jr., an expert in state school aid, the Legislature's freeze shortchanged school districts by a total of $846 million this year. That almost matches the $800 million lawmakers have projected they will spend on a new school aid formula still being developed. Meanwhile, a separate measure to set up a pilot program in which a countywide school district would be established to handle administration for all that county's school boards (S-7) has been killed, Codey said. "The pilot has ditched the plane," he said. The pilot program had won Assembly approval last month, but died in the Senate amid furious opposition from residents of Gloucester County. Yesterday, concerned residents of affluent Chatham and Summit also deluged Codey's office with messages objecting to the countywide school plans. A third plan, to create new county superintendent's posts with authority to veto local school spending decisions, is scheduled to be amended Monday. The Senate plans to eliminate the new superintendent's veto power from the bill (S-10), Senate sources said. Lawmakers also have taken the edge off a plan to set up a special commission with authority to recommend local government units for merger (S-12). The version of the bill to be considered on Monday no longer includes cuts in state aid for communities that fail to act on a merger proposed by the commission. Staff Writers Josh Margolin and Tom Hester contributed to this story. Lack of school aid sent taxes soaring Saturday, January 20, 2007 LOCAL TAXES SOAR DUE TO LACK OF STATE SCHOOL AID By TOM HESTER Jr. ASSOCIATED PRESS As Democrats continued squabbling over property tax reforms, a new study found the state's failure to increase public school funding has driven the levies up as much as 20 percent in some communities. The study, detailing how the lack of public school funding increases has hurt New Jersey communities, comes as Gov. Jon S. Corzine's administration tries to develop a new plan to fund public schools to try to cut the nation's property taxes. The state hasn't increased aid to most public schools for five years as it struggled with annual budget woes. The lack of increased state aid has forced schools to rely more on property taxes that are twice the national average. The state did increase aid to 31 poor, urban schools designated for special help under a Supreme Court order, but hasn't increased some funding to those schools in recent years. The study by the Institute on Education Law and Policy at Rutgers University-Newark determined schools were shorted $846 million in the 2005-06 school year. "This is state aid money that could have been used to increase local budgets or to provide property tax relief," said Ernest C. Reock Jr., the study's author. Had that money been provided, he estimated property taxes would have been cut 6 percent in the poorest districts, 20 percent in lower-income districts, 9 percent in middle-income districts and 3.5 percent in the wealthiest districts. "New Jersey's high property taxes are a factor of the state's consistent underfunding of public education," said Edwina M. Lee, New Jersey School Boards Association executive director. Corzine hopes to redo school funding so aid is allocated based on the number of special needs students in each district. He wants the plan completed before he unveils a budget on Feb. 27, but it is uncertain if that can be done. Meanwhile, lawmakers will try again Monday to push other tax reforms into law, but changes made to an Assembly-approved bill has sparked more disagreements among Democrats who control the Legislature. Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman on Friday expressed concern about Senate changes to an Assembly-approved bill to create a fiscal watchdog to oversee government spending. The changes would eliminate the comptroller's authority to initiate audits of local governments and investigate agreements with land developers. "We must ensure the amendments moving in the Senate do not turn what should be a powerful presence into Trenton's latest 98-pound weakling," said Watson Coleman, D-Mercer. Sen. Robert Littell, R-Sussex, called the revamped bill "little more than a fraud and a sham on the property-tax payers of this state." Corzine, who has insisted on a comptroller if he is to approve a 20 percent property tax cut pushed by Democratic legislators, said changes have made the post stronger. "I'm highly confident we'll get to a conclusion that the public will feel is a real effort," Corzine said. "It won't be a perfect ten, but it will be very positive and constructive." THE RECORD - How towns made up funding shortage Saturday, January 20, 2007 Since 2002-03, state lawmakers have kept education aid virtually flat. And for four years, your property tax bills ballooned. School districts were coping with growing enrollment, inflation and a 44-percent increase in teachers' health costs. Each year, they had to turn to local taxpayers for more money, propelling the average bill to $6,000 -- the highest in the nation. A report out this week imagines what your bills might have been in a world without a freeze. Last year alone, New Jersey school districts would have received an extra $846 million in education aid. That money could have lowered tax bills in the hardest-hit communities by as much as 20 percent, or allowed districts to spend up to $1,627 more per student in the classroom. Here's the impact of flat funding on various kinds of districts: LOW INCOME Districts including: Fairview, Lodi and North Bergen Total shortfall in state aid: $170 million What districts could have done with the money: Reduce property taxes by 20 percent or increase per-pupil spending by $1,627 MIDDLE CLASS Districts including: Elmwood Park, Wayne and Edgewater Total shortfall in state aid: $508 million What districts could have done with the money: Reduce property taxes by 9 percent or increase per-pupil spending by $758 WEALTHY Districts including: Alpine, Saddle River and Kinnelon Total shortfall in state aid: $112 million What districts could have done with the money: Reduce property taxes by 3.5 percent or increase per-pupil spending by $386 Legislators have been meeting since the summer to craft a new school funding formula as part of a property-tax relief effort ordered by Governor Corzine. But the real question is whether they'll actually follow a formula, and adjust state aid as districts grow and change. Estimates by Rutgers University Institute on Education Law and Policy -- Kathleen Carroll
Corzine demands measure banning dual office holding Governor links it to fate of property tax package Saturday, January 20, 2007 BY DUNSTAN McNICHOL Star-Ledger Staff Gov. Jon Corzine pressed the Legislature yesterday to ban dual office holding, telling key lawmakers he "would have trouble signing" any property tax reform package without it, according to two officials familiar with the continuing negotiations. Corzine made his feelings known after language prohibiting dual office holding -- the practice of elected officials holding more than one elected post at a time -- was removed from a bill (S-16) scheduled for a vote in the Senate on Monday, according to an administration official and a legislative official who both asked not to be identified because the talks are still in progress. Democrats from Hudson County, where four of nine state lawmakers hold second elected offices, have led the opposition to the ban, which is aimed to help rein in pension and health benefits. Both Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex) and Corzine have stated publicly they are committed to enacting a ban on dual office holding sometime this year. "We will get a real opportunity to correct some of the other things that I've heard people complain about, (like) dual office holding. ... We'll push on it," Corzine said while standing next to New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer at an unrelated event in Hoboken. When Codey last week removed the language banning dual office holding, he said the issue would be revisited later this year. "That's an issue that we've got to talk about more," Codey said last week, adding it's "going to get done." Yesterday, Codey said Corzine has not told him the dual office ban is a condition of getting the property tax reforms signed. Also on the property tax relief effort, draft versions of the plan to limit property tax growth to 4 percent annually were changed yesterday to include a number of exemptions that would let towns and school districts spend over the proposed limit. For example, spending on growth in the cost of providing health care coverage to employees, cuts in state aid, debt service on local borrowing and future increases in pension contributions could exceed the 4 percent annual spending cap. Mayors also could ask the state for approval to boost taxes beyond the cap to cover soaring energy costs and spending considered necessary to "protect and promote the health, safety and welfare." School officials would be allowed to exceed the cap for school busing on dangerous routes, insurance cost increases and exceptional special education costs, the draft proposals say. In all, two dozen exemptions were added to the latest version, to be introduced in the Senate. The proposals were welcomed by lobbyists for mayors and school officials, who have balked at the prospect of a state-mandated limit on local spending. "It sounds like they have finally taken the time to look at the kinds of fiscal realities that confront local government," said William Dressel, executive director of the New Jersey State League of Municipalities. "In no way, shape or form does this mean local government still is not going to have difficulties, but it certainly goes along way in helping the fiscal realities of local budget makers," he said. Lynne Strickland, executive director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools, likewise approved the broad array of proposed exemptions. "It sounds as if there's a voice of reason being heard here," she said. Corzine has insisted lawmakers impose a cap before he will approve their plan to spend $2 billion providing property tax credits of up to 20 percent for homeowners earning up to $200,000. The tax credit would roughly equal the boost in local taxes residents of some of New Jersey's poorest communities have felt because of the state's decision to freeze state school aid since 2002, a new Rutgers University report shows. According to the study by Ernest C. Reock Jr., an expert in state school aid, the Legislature's freeze shortchanged school districts by a total of $846 million this year. That almost matches the $800 million lawmakers have projected they will spend on a new school aid formula still being developed. Meanwhile, a separate measure to set up a pilot program in which a countywide school district would be established to handle administration for all that county's school boards (S-7) has been killed, Codey said. "The pilot has ditched the plane," he said. The pilot program had won Assembly approval last month, but died in the Senate amid furious opposition from residents of Gloucester County. Yesterday, concerned residents of affluent Chatham and Summit also deluged Codey's office with messages objecting to the countywide school plans. A third plan, to create new county superintendent's posts with authority to veto local school spending decisions, is scheduled to be amended Monday. The Senate plans to eliminate the new superintendent's veto power from the bill (S-10), Senate sources said. Lawmakers also have taken the edge off a plan to set up a special commission with authority to recommend local government units for merger (S-12). The version of the bill to be considered on Monday no longer includes cuts in state aid for communities that fail to act on a merger proposed by the commission. Staff Writers Josh Margolin and Tom Hester contributed to this story. Lack of school aid sent taxes soaring Saturday, January 20, 2007 LOCAL TAXES SOAR DUE TO LACK OF STATE SCHOOL AID By TOM HESTER Jr. ASSOCIATED PRESS As Democrats continued squabbling over property tax reforms, a new study found the state's failure to increase public school funding has driven the levies up as much as 20 percent in some communities. The study, detailing how the lack of public school funding increases has hurt New Jersey communities, comes as Gov. Jon S. Corzine's administration tries to develop a new plan to fund public schools to try to cut the nation's property taxes. The state hasn't increased aid to most public schools for five years as it struggled with annual budget woes. The lack of increased state aid has forced schools to rely more on property taxes that are twice the national average. The state did increase aid to 31 poor, urban schools designated for special help under a Supreme Court order, but hasn't increased some funding to those schools in recent years. The study by the Institute on Education Law and Policy at Rutgers University-Newark determined schools were shorted $846 million in the 2005-06 school year. "This is state aid money that could have been used to increase local budgets or to provide property tax relief," said Ernest C. Reock Jr., the study's author. Had that money been provided, he estimated property taxes would have been cut 6 percent in the poorest districts, 20 percent in lower-income districts, 9 percent in middle-income districts and 3.5 percent in the wealthiest districts. "New Jersey's high property taxes are a factor of the state's consistent underfunding of public education," said Edwina M. Lee, New Jersey School Boards Association executive director. Corzine hopes to redo school funding so aid is allocated based on the number of special needs students in each district. He wants the plan completed before he unveils a budget on Feb. 27, but it is uncertain if that can be done. Meanwhile, lawmakers will try again Monday to push other tax reforms into law, but changes made to an Assembly-approved bill has sparked more disagreements among Democrats who control the Legislature. Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman on Friday expressed concern about Senate changes to an Assembly-approved bill to create a fiscal watchdog to oversee government spending. The changes would eliminate the comptroller's authority to initiate audits of local governments and investigate agreements with land developers. "We must ensure the amendments moving in the Senate do not turn what should be a powerful presence into Trenton's latest 98-pound weakling," said Watson Coleman, D-Mercer. Sen. Robert Littell, R-Sussex, called the revamped bill "little more than a fraud and a sham on the property-tax payers of this state." Corzine, who has insisted on a comptroller if he is to approve a 20 percent property tax cut pushed by Democratic legislators, said changes have made the post stronger. "I'm highly confident we'll get to a conclusion that the public will feel is a real effort," Corzine said. "It won't be a perfect ten, but it will be very positive and constructive." THE RECORD - How towns made up funding shortage Saturday, January 20, 2007 Since 2002-03, state lawmakers have kept education aid virtually flat. And for four years, your property tax bills ballooned. School districts were coping with growing enrollment, inflation and a 44-percent increase in teachers' health costs. Each year, they had to turn to local taxpayers for more money, propelling the average bill to $6,000 -- the highest in the nation. A report out this week imagines what your bills might have been in a world without a freeze. Last year alone, New Jersey school districts would have received an extra $846 million in education aid. That money could have lowered tax bills in the hardest-hit communities by as much as 20 percent, or allowed districts to spend up to $1,627 more per student in the classroom. Here's the impact of flat funding on various kinds of districts: LOW INCOME Districts including: Fairview, Lodi and North Bergen Total shortfall in state aid: $170 million What districts could have done with the money: Reduce property taxes by 20 percent or increase per-pupil spending by $1,627 MIDDLE CLASS Districts including: Elmwood Park, Wayne and Edgewater Total shortfall in state aid: $508 million What districts could have done with the money: Reduce property taxes by 9 percent or increase per-pupil spending by $758 WEALTHY Districts including: Alpine, Saddle River and Kinnelon Total shortfall in state aid: $112 million What districts could have done with the money: Reduce property taxes by 3.5 percent or increase per-pupil spending by $386 Legislators have been meeting since the summer to craft a new school funding formula as part of a property-tax relief effort ordered by Governor Corzine. But the real question is whether they'll actually follow a formula, and adjust state aid as districts grow and change. Estimates by Rutgers University Institute on Education Law and Policy -- Kathleen Carroll
