Citing redevelopment, state raises tax levy
Additional funds put district at '06 level
BY CHRISTINE VARNO
Staff Writer

With redevelopment under way in Long Branch, the New Jersey Department of Education (DOE) has determined that the city is in a position to contribute a greater amount of money to the local school spending plan.

The DOE released its state aid figures last month, and they call for a $1,167,564 decrease from last year's funding for Long Branch schools, according to DOE spokesman Richard Vespucci.

"It is a result of a review [by the state] of the school district's ability to pay a greater share of the school budget," said Vespucci about the state aid cuts last week.

"The socio-economic status changed dramatically," Vespucci said, adding, "The city's] oceanfront redevelopment has contributed to it. [The city] is changing."

With the 2.7 percent decrease in state aid, the Long Branch School District will be asking taxpayers to raise the $1.16 million for the 2007-2008 school year, according to the district's business administrator.

"This is not our doing," Peter Genovese said in an interview last week.

"This is being forced on us by the state. They feel we can raise this money without burdening taxpayers," he said.

However, on Tuesday, Genovese said the district learned that it would receive an additional increase in aid from state that would off-set the decrease, but limit the district's spending capabilities.

Gov. Jon S. Corzine pledged that school districts would receive a 3 percent increase in aid from the state this year, according to Genovese, who said in Long Branch that equates to $1.2 million.

"We did get that increase," Genovese said in an interview Tuesday, adding that the district is now $295,000 over the amount of funds it received from the state last year.

[It] is still not a lot," he said. "Long Branch will have to make adjustments but it would be okay. If we [did] not get the three percent, then we [would] not make it."

For non-Abbott districts, the 3 percent increase was included in last month's state aid printouts from the DOE, according to Genovese, who said the state had set aside $125 million to contribute to the increase in Abbott districts.

The 3 percent increase in funding to Long Branch, Genovese said, will allow the district to continue with its current operations.

If it did not receive the extra funding, the district would have had to make adjustments and cuts, he added.

The Long Branch School District is one of the original 28 districts in the state to be designated in 1990 as Abbot districts. It remains one of the state's 31 Abbott districts.

Abbott districts were mandated by the New Jersey Supreme Court to provide students in poorer urban school districts with "a thorough and efficient education."

The DOE has determined that the economic status in 10 of the Abbott districts, including Long Branch, has improved, according to Vespucci.

"For many years the local taxes were frozen in Abbott districts," Genovese explained. "This was because the Abbott districts had the highest tax burden compared to the rest of the school districts in the state," he said.

"The decrease in aid does not mean that programs and staff will suffer in these districts, it just means the towns have a greater capacity now to shoulder more of the tax burden," Vespucci added.

Genovese added that asking residents to raise a higher tax levy is not "necessarily a bad thing."

"Yes, taxes will go up," he said, "but the additional funds shows the community supporting its schools."

Genovese explained that the state paid the school district $43.9 million in state aid last year and it proposed to give $42.7 million in aid for the 2007-2008 school year, before it received the three percent increase.

"They have reduced our state aid by over $1.1 million and basically said get that money from taxpayers," he said. "That will leave us at financially, where we were last year.

Although, with the three percent increase promised from Corzine, the originally proposed decrease in state aid has been off-set, Genovese said he is still working with limited funds to carryout everyday operations in the district.

"I don't get anymore money and we have several million dollars in increases this year."

He added that under $300,000 is not a lot of money to fund uncontrollable increases in the district.

Such increases include salary and health benefits, which the district has no control over, he said.

He also said that several of the 11 schools in the district are new buildings and require new equipment to keep them maintained.

But the district did accomplish cost savings in its spending plan by negotiating new contracts for school transportation, and several of the schools' tenured teachers are retiring.

Last year the district raised a tax levy of $29.1 million and this year is asking tax payers to raise $30.3 million.

Genovese said he trusts the DOE's calculation that Long Branch's socio-economic status has changed and is continuing to improve.

"It is a two-edged sword, but it is a wonderful thing," he said.

"The city is growing and doing wonderful things and that shows tremendous growth in a city." he said.

But on the other hand, he said, taxpayers are footing the bill.

"The state has an obligation to pay its fair share," he said. "And the argument has always been, what is its fair share?"