NJSBA: State Budget Will Ease Property Tax Burden, Improve Education

State Seeks to End Abbott Designation

State Board Keeps SRA Alternative Graduation Test

Commissioner Clarifies Travel Regulations for Schools

Proposal Would Expand Voter Approval for State Debt

NSBA Joins ‘Class of One’ Lawsuit

Ten States to Get NCLB Flexibility

Free Forum on Recycling in K-12 Schools

Salem Vo-Tech Earns National Honors

Calendar

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The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee recently approved legislation that would require voter approval before the state could use independent authorities to issue public debt.

The measure, SCR-39, would place a question on the November ballot asking voters to amend the state constitution to require voter approval when the state borrows money by issuing bonds through certain types of state independent authorities. Under the Senate concurrent resolution, voter approval would not be required if the debt is undertaken by an independent non-state agency and repaid by a third party, such as tolls, or if the bonds are to be paid off from a constitutional dedication of state revenue.

While the New Jersey Constitution requires voter approval for the state to borrow money, court decisions over the years have upheld the Legislature’s ability to bypass voter approval if public authorities are used as a conduit for borrowing. The measure is supported by Gov. Jon Corzine, who discussed it during his annual budget address last month.

Affects Schools A statement in the resolution says, “More recently, independent authority debt has been used to cover regular state government operating obligations such as funding the payment of the unfunded accrued liability of the state’s pension systems and the court-ordered obligation to fund capital improvements in the public schools in ‘Abbott districts.’”

The resolution could impact future school construction. Had the resolution been in place in 2000, voter approval would have been needed to pass the state’s Educational Facilities Construction and Financing Act, which allocated $8.6 billion for school construction throughout the state. Instead, the Legislature had the state Economic Development Authority handle the financing, although there was no dedicated source of revenue to pay for the school construction bonds.