After Woodbridge voters reject school tax levy, budget goes to Township Council

by Sergio Bichao on Apr 21st | Email

In the next four weeks, the Woodbridge Township Council and school officials will pore over the proposed 2010-2011 school budget to decide if any more money can be cut from a spending plan the superintendent says is already “as lean as it possibly could be.”

The budget is now in the hands of the nine council members after voters Tuesday rejected the proposed 4 percent school tax levy increase by a 6,350-4,734 margin.

It was an election that one township officials described as “polarized” and “emotional,” especially because of Gov. Chris Christie's battle with the powerful state teachers union over pay freezes and health benefits. About 21 percent of the township's 54,000 registered voters cast ballots Tuesday, up from 12 percent last year. The result was the sixth defeated school-tax levy in Woodbridge since 2000.

Even if the question had passed, raising taxes by an average of $156, the district would have still eliminated more than $12 million in spending on programs, athletics, busing and security, along with 280 jobs.

If the council chooses to cut more, “it would be further cuts to staff and or programs,” Superintendent John Crowe said. “We simply don't have that much surplus to even go there.”

Crowe said he didn't want to "play pundit" and guess why voters rejected the spending plan, but council President Jim Major, a former school board member, said statewide politics played a role.

“I think it was a very polarized, very emotional issue based on the governor's opposition and also his comments, which seemed to have certainly roused a lot of people,” he said.

Since Christie announced in March that his administration wanted to slash state aid to school districts, the new governor and the New Jersey Education Association have traded barbs over Christie's suggestion that teachers take pay freezes and pay more toward their benefits. The union slammed Christie for not renewing a tax on residents earning more than $400,000.

At one point in the campaign, Christie singled out Woodbridge's teachers union for not agreeing to freeze their salaries, a move that would have saved the district at least $2.6 million.

Christie on Wednesday called it a “watershed moment for New Jersey” that 58 percent of the school budgets statewide were defeated. Nearly 80 percent of budgets were approved in districts where teachers accepted pay freezes, he added.

The council has until May 19 to decide what the school tax levy will be. Before then, Major said a committee of council members will look over the budget with an auditor and meet with school officials and board members. No meeting dates have been scheduled.

The amount past councils have cut from Woodbridge school budgets has ranged from $3.1 million in 1995 to keeping it intact in 2002.