Schools
For Administration, School Aid Equals Property Tax Relief
Governor's office "strongly encourages" school districts not to use funding to restore cut programs
New Jersey school districts yesterday . But there's a twist: the administration wants most of them to use the money for property tax relief.
There still appeared to be some questions as to what actually will be required, if anything. But the governor's office said late in the day that suburban districts receiving extra aid would be "strongly" encouraged to apply the added aid to property tax relief and not necessarily to restoring cut programs.
“The additional education aid included in this year’s budget is an opportunity to reduce property tax burdens by lowering local property tax levies for this fiscal year or the next and move closer toward real reform in our schools," said Christie spokesman Kevin Roberts in a statement.
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Tax relief is exactly what the Morris School District has in mind. The district will get almost $2 million more state aid in 2011-12 than in 2010-11.
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"However, we are waiting on guidance from the DOE on how it can be used," Morris School District Business Administrator Chris Kelly said. "That being said, we hope to apply it to tax relief in the 12-13 school year."
In the Morris Plains School District too, officials were awaiting further information on how the additional funds were to be used. Superintendent of schools Dennis Mack said he needed to look further into the reason why all $465,716 of the state aid listed for Morris Plains appears to be marked as "Special Education Aid."
