Assemblyman, educators blast budget cap bill

State Assemblyman Bill Baroni was expected to introduce a bill last week that would repeal state legislation implementing school budget caps.

“It’s erroneous public policy,” Baroni (R-Mercer/Middlesex) said of bill S1701, which recently became law.

The law, created to curb property tax increases, passed both houses of the Legislature on June 24 and was later signed by the governor. It reduced the annual caps on spending growth from 3 percent to 2.5 percent, and reduced the amount of surplus school districts may carry from 6 percent to 3 percent.

At a recent press conference, Baroni said the law fundamentally changed the way school districts worked, taking power away from local school administrators and giving it to state legislators. The message this law sends, Baroni said, is that Trenton knows more about what is best for local schools.

He said he trusts local residents to decide what is best for their schools.

Brick Township Superintendent of Schools Dr. Thomas Seidenberger said this law doesn’t look at school funding, but caps spending, which isn’t the same thing.

“I don’t know how many more rabbits we can pull out of the hat,” Seidenberger said.

There are two main concerns when going into the 2005-06 budget process and dealing with this new law, the superintendent said. One thing is special education funding. Seidenberger said the cost of special education in the district has gone up 24 percent in the past two years. There are no caps placed on funding for special education, Seidenberger said.

He said what worries him is, as costs for special education go up, and caps on other areas of the budget come down, other programs in the district are going to have to suffer to make up the difference.

One of the things that may suffer, Seidenberger said, is courtesy busing. He said the community has always supported courtesy busing, but more children may find themselves walking to school if budget cuts need to be done in order to come in under cap.

“We certainly don’t overspend; my God, we’re at rock bottom,” Seidenberger said.

“We’re at rock bottom,” he continued. “We’re in the basement — do we have to go in the dungeon?”

He said other factors, such as cuts or a lack of funding for other federally-mandated programs could hurt the district too. He said that while it’s the federal government’s right to impose education laws on school districts, it’s also a “federal responsibility” to provide funding.

Brick Township is low on the ladder when it comes to spending, he said. “Something in this new law just doesn’t seem appropriate for Brick, it’s just not fair,” Seidenberger said.

The superintendent said he thinks “cooler heads will prevail” and discover that this law is not how to fix funding for education.

According to Baroni, school budget caps hurt the state’s most vulnerable children, and surplus funds are crucial for extracurricular activities, renovations and insurance expenses. The new law asks teachers and administrators to create a balanced budget that educates more students with less funding.

“We believe that this is a bad policy that doesn’t provide solutions for the conundrum of property taxes,” said Lynne Strickland, executive director of Garden State Coalition of Schools.

The coalition is made up of teachers, superintendents and other administrators, and represents nearly 120 school districts in the state.

Strickland said she favors a bill that would return school funding to its prior state. Strickland also said people falsely believed the new law would help relieve property taxes. But faced with increasing enrollment and decreased funds from the state, it is the schools and educational quality that suffer, she said.

“Schools are upset across the state,” Strickland said.

She also voiced concern, along with Baroni, over the speed in which S1701 was passed, saying she never saw a bill of such importance voted on so fast and with such little debate.

Baroni said the bill, introduced by Gov. James E. McGreevey, was passed “in the dark of night” in the Legislature by seven votes. Baroni said the bill never was put through the state’s Education Committee, of which he is a member.

Baroni, in a press release, said it was school funding, not school spending, that is at the root of the property tax crisis.

“The focus should be on increasing state aid to our schools, not imposing arbitrary caps on spending. Our over-reliance on property taxes isn’t going to be fixed by underfunding education,” Baroni said.

Baroni said New Jersey has created a “one size fits all” solution for the problem of property taxation. Baroni also noted that no evidence presented proved caps on school spending would benefit property taxpayers.

Baroni was scheduled to introduce his bill on Sept. 13, and has received support from both Republicans and Democrats. Baroni said his bill seeks solutions to the school budget cap law, which did nothing to support schools or property taxpayers.

“My bill is fixing that,” Baroni said.

— Melissa Cifelli and Jennifer Dome contributed to this story