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P.O. Box 909 ● Trenton, NJ 08605-0909 ● Phone: 609.695.7600 ● Fax: 609.695.0413 ● Web: www.njsba.org/PI |
NEWS RELEASE CONTACT: Frank Belluscio (fbelluscio@njsba.org) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Special Session Bills Will Not Solve Property Tax Problem – NJSBA TRENTON, December 7, 2006 - A bill under consideration by one of the joint legislative committees studying property tax reform will do nothing to lower property taxes. Instead, it could increase school costs, embroil local education policy in party politics, and distance school policy decisions from parents and voters, a representative of the New Jersey School Boards Association testified today. Appearing before the Joint Legislative Committee on Government Consolidation and Shared Services, Eva M. Nagy, the association’s vice president for legislation, said Assembly Bill 4/Senate Bill 42 detracts from the real cause of high property taxes: inadequate state aid. “Since 2002, the state has shortchanged communities more than $700 million in school aid,” said Nagy. “Local property taxes filled in the gaps, and this only worsened an already bad situation.” National Education Association statistics place New Jersey state government’s share of public school expenditures at 38 percent of the total costs. In comparison, the average state contributes a much higher percentage – close to half – of the cost of public education. For New Jersey homeowners, the low level of state aid equals high property taxes. November School Elections Nagy took issue with two of A-4/S-42’s provisions – one that would move non-partisan school board member elections to November and another that would create executive, or “super,” county superintendents of schools. “Moving school board elections to the partisan November General Election would have no bearing on property tax rates at all,” she testified. “It would only serve to place local education policy in a partisan political environment. School board candidates and classroom issues would get caught up with party slates, in spite of our best intentions to prevent it. “State law allows municipalities with non-partisan governments to elect their mayors and governing bodies in the spring. There’s good reason for this process: To insulate municipal offices from partisan politics. Our state’s 4800 non-partisan, non-paid school board offices should continue to have this same safeguard.” Nagy cited a body of judicial rulings upholding the non-partisan nature of school boards in New Jersey. In addition, Election Law Enforcement statistics show that, up to now, the political parties have had negligible involvement in financing campaigns in the April non-partisan school board elections. “An alternative to a November election date would be to consolidate school board elections with the non-partisan municipal and fire district elections on one day in the spring,” Nagy proposed. “That would attract greater voter participation and distance these offices from partisan politics.” “Super” County Superintendents proposal to appoint politically appointed “super” county superintendents with sweeping powers over local school budgets and personnel matters would “do nothing to reform property taxes,” Nagy asserted. “Instead, this proposal would create a bloated county-level bureaucracy, increase costs by wiping out savings already achieved by local school districts, and distance education policy from parents and voters.” Nagy sounded a strong caution: “Think about it: Executive county superintendents—appointed by the governor, beholden to no voter—with near-dictatorial power over local school budgets, and with control over purchasing and human resources.” She noted that cost-savings already achieved by local school boards by sharing services and negotiating cost-control of health benefits could conceivably wiped out if state officials took over procurement and human resource functions. “Legislators have a difficult task. Citizens want you to rein in property taxes. But they also expect you…to keep the focus on the real root of our property-tax problems while creating a system that protects—not scapegoats—public education,” said Nagy. ********
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