Apr 16, 2008 11:47 am US/Eastern
Officials Approve Most N.J. School Budgets
MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. (AP) ―
Despite signs of broad economic trouble, voters in New Jersey approved about three-quarters of the state's school budgets in school elections.
The New Jersey School Boards Association, which collects data on the votes, says that preliminary numbers show that 74 percent of the budgets were adopted by voters. Recounts could change the percentage slightly.
The passage rate was a bit lower than last year but still higher than average.
The majority of budgets were approved in every county except for Middlesex, the school boards association found.
New Jersey is the only state where voters in most districts can give direct approval to their entire school property tax bill. The average homeowner in the state pays about $6,800 per year in property taxes -- the highest in the nation. Schools get the largest share of that.
Usually, fewer than 20 percent of eligible voters participate in the elections.
Frank Belluscio, a spokesman for the school boards association, said his group attributes the strong passage largely to an increase of state aid that helped school districts keep proposed tax increases lower than usual.
Gov. Jon S. Corzine has said that the average increase schools were asking for was a bit under 3 percent. Some schools were keeping tax levies flat or even reducing them a bit.
Not faring as well were second questions, which ask for additional spending at schools -- often to launch new programs such as all-day kindergartens. Only seven out of 33 of those questions statewide were approved.
Belluscio said 10 would have been approved if not for a new requirement that those additional questions get 60 percent approval rather than a simple majority.
(© 2008 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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