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Property Taxes, School Funding issues
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4-3-05 GSCS testified before Senate Budget & Approps Comm on State Budget FY 07

 

Voters' patience taxed
Sunday, April 2, 2006






The message to Governor Corzine is clear: Keep your hands off my rebate.

Voters are angry with Corzine for breaking his promise – the centerpiece of his election campaign – to significantly raise property tax rebates, a poll by The Record found last week. The governor is proposing a modest $30 rebate increase in his budget for the next fiscal year.

The survey also found that the rebate check remains a popular fixture with the public despite growing concern in Trenton about its drain on the state coffers.

Most surveyed, nearly 56 percent, said they were unwilling to forgo the check even if it would save the state enough money so Corzine would no longer need to raise the state sales tax, as he proposed in his $30.9 billion budget.

Voters are unhappy with other provisions of Corzine's budget. The survey found that if voters had their way, they would slash more government programs and lay off more state workers before raising taxes.

Corzine says he needs $1.8 billion in tax increases and nearly all of that should come from raising the sales tax to 7 percent from 6 percent and extending it to more consumer goods. The first-term Democrat also has asked the Legislature to raise taxes on alcohol and cigarettes and to impose a new fee on luxury cars.

The survey suggested that voters are willing to accept most of Corzine's proposed tax increases. Nearly 47 percent agreed with his plan to raise the sales tax, compared with 37 percent who disagreed and 16 percent who were unsure. An overwhelming majority, 71 percent, said the sales tax hike, which would cost the average household about $260 more a year, would not force them to postpone major purchases.

Although most surveyed gave Corzine low marks on his budget proposal, 44 percent said they approved of the way he was doing his job, compared with 24 percent who thought he was doing either a fair or poor job and 32 percent who were unsure.

"I'm not saying he's going to get a pass. If the state economy is in the hole his entire term, that's going to be an albatross," said Del Ali of Research 2000 of Rockville, Md., which conducted the survey. "Any kind of honeymoon he had is gone. It's the same old typical politician, I think, that's how a lot of that anger is going to be seen."

The poll, which has a margin of error of 3.2 percentage points, surveyed 1,000 registered voters by telephone from Tuesday through Thursday.

Three months into his term, voters are increasingly unsure about Corzine's ability to control state spending. Fifty percent of those surveyed reported having little or no confidence that he will control rising state costs, up from 39 percent in a January poll.

Although voters give Corzine poor grades on his budget, they don't blame him for the state's chronic fiscal crisis. The biggest share of voters, 35 percent, faulted the Legislature. Former Gov. James E. McGreevey, who left office amid political corruption and scandal over an alleged affair with a male aide, ranked second with 23 percent.

Corzine and his immediate predecessor Richard Codey were singled out by 5 percent of those surveyed.

Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts, D-Camden, said he understood why voters would be angry with the Legislature.

"The average citizen sees New Jersey paralyzed by property taxes and the Legislature unable to tackle the problem," he said.

The governor is not concerned with poll numbers, but instead is working with a task force headed by the state auditor to search for more things to cut from the budget, said Corzine spokeswoman Ivette Mendez.

Voters also will need time to digest his budget proposal, and more so than past budgets because Corzine is not offering easy solutions, she said. The budget must be approved by the Legislature and signed into law by July 1.

"The governor has been talking continuously about how this is going to be a tough budget with tough choices, speaking the unvarnished truth," she said.

And residents, at least those Corzine meets in his appearances across the state, are supportive, Mendez said.

"That's how we rate what we're doing, when we're talking to the people out there face-to-face. They seem to understand this is a tough budget," she said. "It will take time. It's been less than two weeks since we put this budget out and we didn't sugarcoat the truth."

The poll shows just how distrustful people are, said Tom Wilson, chairman of New Jersey's Republican state committee.

"It demonstrates that there were high expectations and he has failed miserably in the most immediate task ... to get state spending under control," Wilson said. "The people are smart. They understand that a budget that spends $3 billion more is not a budget that's been cut. I think people are smart enough to understand that, despite all the promises, that Jon Corzine is turning into politics as usual."

Property tax rebates remain the voters' biggest concern even when faced with paying higher taxes to maintain the $1.2 billion program.

When the survey asked about Corzine's broken rebate promise, 53 percent of voters polled said they were angry with the governor; 37 percent said they were not. Ten percent were unsure how they felt about the rebate pledge.

"I think what you're hearing is what we're hearing loud and clear all across the state from people that property tax relief is essential," said Roberts, who was among a group of Assembly leaders who pushed to restore the rebates in last year's budget talks. "We're not doing enough now and we certainly can't afford to go backwards."

 

School budget tied to state aid
Saturday, April 1, 2006






PATERSON - Homeowners can expect their school taxes to remain level, but programs and staff may have to be cut if the district can't squeeze more than $36 million from a state administration that says its coffers are empty.

In a 7-1 vote Thursday night, the school board approved the $520 million budget at a public hearing. Under the proposed 2006-07 budget, which includes the $36 million, the owner of a home assessed at $20,809, the city's average, would pay $1,304, or $2.08 more than they did this school year.

School board member Joe Atallo, who voted against the budget, did not believe the school district would succeed if it went to court to appeal for $36 million -- a tactic it used to secure $28 million in additional state funding last year.

"Governor Corzine made it very clear that the state does not have any more money," said Atallo, before the meeting. "If we go to court, you can't get blood from a stone."

Shortly after Corzine presented a tightened fiscal budget, the acting Commissioner of Education, Lucille E. Davy, informed the state's 31 neediest urban districts -- known as Abbott districts -- that they would not be able to ask for additional state aid, in a letter dated March 23.

However, contrary to the commissioner's order, Schools Superintendent Michael E. Glascoe said that all the Abbott school superintendents agreed at a recent monthly meeting that they would ask for the additional state aid.

"We have all decided with legal counsel that this is in violation of the Supreme Court ruling," said Glascoe, referring to the Abbott mandate that children in even the poorest areas should be able to receive a "thorough and efficient education."

After the meeting, Glascoe said that he could not discuss the details of what programs could be cut, if the school district did not receive more funding, but during the meeting, he told Lawrence Spagnola, board vice president, that cutting teachers would be a last resort.

The state Department of Education said that some of the budgets they have received from Abbott districts thus far did ask for additional state aid but that others did not. The state DOE could not provide more specific numbers, because it has not been keeping a "running tally," according to Rick Vespucci, a spokesman.

During the last budget season, Paterson was the only district in the state that appealed for more funding but this time, at least the nearby school districts of Passaic and Garfield are also asking for more money for next school year. With a $244 million budget, Passaic is asking for $31.4 million in additional state aid, according to Business Administrator Henry J. Lee. Garfield, which is proposing a $62 million budget, is appealing for $1.7 million in state aid, according to Business Administrator Dennis Frohnapfel.

Irene Sterling, of the Education Fund, agreed that the Paterson school district should "engage in a battle with the state and do right by the children of Paterson."

 

 

Budget boosts school tax bill
Friday, March 31, 2006

HACKENSACK -- School taxes would rise $132 under a spending plan voters will decide on April 18, but it "could have been worse," district officials said this week.

"We had a series of things working against us," Superintendent Joseph Montesano said during a Board of Education meeting on Wednesday. "We anticipated that it was going to be a tremendously ugly budget year."

The school board adopted a $77.1 million budget, up from last year's $73.8 million plan. The 2006 budget, if approved by voters, would rely on $53.5 million in property taxes, which is up 4.9 percent from last year's $50.9 million tax levy.

For a home assessed at about $157,000, which is the figure school officials used, school taxes would jump from $3,551 to $3,683. Those numbers are estimates, since the city is undergoing a revaluation, with new property assessments taking effect next calendar year.

Among the issues the school district faced was a decrease of $367,812 in state funding, rising operating costs, and state law S-1701, which places a cap on school districts' spending and limits the surplus kept by districts for emergencies to 2 percent.

Last year, under the law, Hackensack had to use $3.5 million of its surplus toward the budget, which left officials wondering whether they would be able to recoup the money and provide the same tax relief this year.

But with "conservative" spending and the help of grants that paid for costs that would have otherwise been incurred by the district, administrators were able to gather $3.4 million this year from the surplus to be used for next year's budget.

"I don't know if we're going to be able to do that again," Montesano warned.

Next year, the school district will pay an extra $1.07 million for salaries, $1.39 million more for health benefits, an additional $184,568 for special education tuition, and $374,954 more for utilities.

E-mail: alvarado@northjersey.com