Bridgewater Residents to See $32 Increase in School Taxes
And Raritan residents will see a decrease in their taxes.
The Bridgewater-Raritan Board of Education approved its 2013-2014 school budget Thursday with a $32 increase in taxes for Bridgewater residents.
The budget is set at $139,515,108, an increase of 2.79 percent over the 2012-2013 budget.
The budget itself has a 1.86-percent tax levy increase.
For Bridgewater residents with an average home assessment of $394,709, they will see an increase of about $32.19 on their school taxes.
Raritan residents, with an average home assessment of $320,005, will see a decrease in their school taxes of $0.20.
"Although the proposed budget tax levy is going up 1.86 percent, the impact of the tax rate has other variables, namely rateables of both communities," said business administrator Peter Starrs.
In Bridgewater, Starrs said, rateables have gone down 4.2 percent this year, and in Raritan, they went down 0.19 percent.
"That all had an impact on the tax rate, and the amount of school taxes," he said.
But as for the budget itself, Cheryl Dyer, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction, said nothing has changed since it was introduced March 5.
Although the budget was approved by the board, board member Ann Marie Mead was the sole vote against it.
"I think it came in too high," she said. "I think we should have sharpened our pencils more."
Mead said part of the issue she had with the budget were the proposed seven floater positions that would be used if class sizes needed to be reduced. She said that since they only used six last year, she wasn't sure why seven would be needed this year.
"Especially when the population is going down, why do we need seven for this year?" she said. "I think we need to be very aware of these things, especially since residents are not voting on the budget."
Argonne Farm Drive John Corbitt said he is pleased about having the floating positions because he would like to see class sizes lowered.
"I have seen the positive impact the smaller class sizes have had," he said, referring to his two daughters' classes in Hamilton Primary. "Last year the class sizes were in mid teens, this year they were closer to 25, and I think there is a change in individualized attention."
"I appreciate that this is here as a line item," he added.
And resident Barry Walker said he still actually believes that not allowing residents to vote on the budget is doing a disservice to them.
"People are not engaged in the budget," he said. "This is the single thing we can vote on in spending. The budget keeps going up but the number of students has gone down. We need to find other avenues in spending and saving."
Robert Young
6:20 am on Friday, March 22, 2013
Why do senior citizens that have not ever or 25 years ago have to pay the same rate as people with kids in school. Also, why do we need to pay for illegals in our public school system. I firmly believe we need new progressive thinkers in our Bridgewater goverment. Give senior citizens a break on school taxes. We have paid enough and deserve a break as we mostly live on a fixed income.
Eric Cartman
7:42 pm on Friday, March 22, 2013
...and you retirement savings?
....and your Medicare? I'm not old. Why should I have to pay for health care for seniors?
Mike Umbris
8:04 am on Friday, March 22, 2013
Disgusting.. Any increase is too much. Blood from a stone at this point. Keep raising our taxes, see where this goes. Nice touch that residents can't even vote on this.
Robin Brueckner
9:12 am on Friday, March 22, 2013
Where are the objective metrics by which the school board can begin to assess each years budget proposals? Such as average % teacher salary increase? Average % increase in benefit costs?
# students down about 400 from 2011
Cost per student up almost 15% [$12,589 to $14,439]
[roughly 70% of expenditures are for salaries and benefits]
How were reductions in electric and gas costs gobbled up?
Nice salary increase for teachers during the entire economic slowdown since 2007/2008...with no teacher vacancies, low turnover, and LOTS of qualified people waiting in line to teach.
Ann Marie Mead was the sole vote against it. Too bad she had to stand alone.
Look at the sweet administrative support salaries here:
http://www.brrsd.k12.nj.us/files/filesystem/user%20friendly%20budget%203-19-2013.htm
[The superintendent's salary seems ok to a casual observer...but the administration
subordinates salaries sure seem high.] Nice work if you can get it!!
While the private sector cuts back and home prices continue to decline, there needs to be more detailed scrutiny of year over year school expenditures.
You cannot even find the detailed line by line budget at the school district website....at least I cannot. Why is it not 'front and center'??
Liz Hoffmann
9:17 am on Friday, March 22, 2013
I don't understand the statement that Raritan taxes will go down. I received noti ce from Raritan boro that mine will increase by more than $40 this year for my tiny townhouse.
Audrey Levine
9:33 am on Friday, March 22, 2013
The borough and school district have two separate budgets and calculate their own taxes in two separate ways, so while your municipal taxes in Raritan might be increasing because of that budget, your school taxes are decreasing based on the budget approved by the district. Hope that helps!
BwaterDad
1:26 pm on Friday, March 22, 2013
That notice probably includes both the school tax and the municipal tax (as well as county, fire district and whatever else is on your tax bill), but the school tax would be for the LAST budget, that is, the one in effect for the current school-fiscal year (7/1/12-6/30/13). The tax decrease mentioned in this article would be for the following year, so it probably isn't taken into account in that notice.
Lauralee Davis
10:42 am on Friday, March 22, 2013
What do you expect from the people that robbed us of our right to vote on the budget? It certainly isn't going to go down. Also, as far as the Superintendent's salary goes, wasn't it jacked up right before Christie's wage freeze? So, unless I'm misremembering, no laurels there either. Why the administration needs to make so much more $$ than the people who actually teach our children, I'll never know. We all know who really have the more important, more strenuous jobs.
Robin Brueckner
10:56 am on Friday, March 22, 2013
By the way...voting on a 'school budget' is mostly after the fact. With about 70% of school expenditures going to wages and benefits, it's the UNION CONTRACT that is paramount ...is it about every three years??...So for most budgets the single biggest components are already set. Someone remind me, WHY are there
unions involved in government employment??
Robin Brueckner
4:27 pm on Friday, March 22, 2013
Ok, I Finally found the 48 page Bridgewater Raritan Regional School District Budget...so if you go to investigate, be prepared for some unintelligible line item descriptions . But the aggregate wages/salaries and the year over year increases can be seen school by school.
"People respect what you inspect" was an adage I learned many years ago at AT&T. Without objective metrics and analysis of cost increases by category what inevitably results are never ending expenditure increases....that's what happens in any bureaucracy.
Eric Cartman
6:04 pm on Friday, March 22, 2013
You guys is right. Me thinks we already spend too much time and money on all of these learning books and computer mumbo jumbos. If them kids want learning, let them go to some fancy school. I want my $32.
Metoo
7:06 pm on Friday, March 22, 2013
"private sector cuts back and home prices continue to decline" How so? I've seen prices rise in the last 5 years in the private sector like, well, like always. How are they cutting back? What is driving prices up? Home values are not declining either, they're going up.