New Law Has Chilling Effect on Second Ballot Questions

Gov. Corzine Meets with School Boards

Senate Passes Paid Family Leave Bill

N.J. Students Top Nation in Writing

Delegate Assembly Handbook to be Mailed

Faces at National

Lehigh Sponsors Special Ed Conference

Calendar

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The new law that requires an unprecedented 60-percent supermajority of voters to approve additional school-funding questions, or “second ballot questions,” appears to be having a chilling effect on the number of such questions put before voters in this year’s Annual School Election.

Only 28 school boards are proposing 33 additional ballot questions in the April 15 school election—the lowest number since the current system of second ballot questions was established a dozen years ago. It is a sharp decrease from last year, when 65 school districts proposed a total of 87 additional spending questions.

The number of second ballot questions in this year’s school election also represents a dramatic downturn from the previous eight years, when an average of 70 school boards proposed a total of 86 second ballot questions each year.

Base Budgets and Second Questions During the Annual School Election, voters in 549 school districts will act on proposed base budgets. A-1, the state law enacted in April 2007, placed a 4-percent cap on local school property tax levy increases in base budgets. The law also requires 60 percent of voters approve a school district’s second ballot proposal to exceed that levy cap.

“No other public question in New Jersey requires a super-majority vote—not even Constitutional amendments,” said Kevin E. Ciak, NJSBA president.  “Under this law, a minority of voters—41 percent—can outweigh the will of the majority. The requirement could stand in the way of communities’ ability to raise their own funds for needed school programs.”

For 2008, many of the second ballot questions address educational programs and services.

• 20 of the 38 questions ask voters to approve funding for staff. Eight specify classroom teachers or aides; two ask for art/music teachers; and two seek counselors.
  
  
• 11 questions focus on safety equipment or security staff.
  
  
• Five questions ask voters to approve full-day kindergarten.

Other Questions  The Annual School Election also serves as one of the dates during the year when school boards can place construction proposals on the ballot. On April 15, voters in 15 districts will act on a total of $136 million in proposed school construction.

School districts may also propose organizational changes to voters during the Annual School Election.  Two districts will ask voters to change the number of members on their local school board: Frenchtown in Hunterdon County, from nine to seven members, and Plumsted Township in Ocean County, from five to seven members. There is also a board member recall in Hardyston Township.