TOMS RIVER – Attempts to gather allies to improve the state funding formula for education failed because they were not endorsed by the New Jersey School Boards Association.
Toms River is one of several local districts that has lost millions in state aid over the last several years. The latest way to solve this problem was trying to change three things in the state that impact how aid is given.
It was reported at a recent Toms River School Board meeting by member Anna Polozzo that several attempts did not pan out “because a couple of staff members” at the Association weren’t interested.
Toms River had sent three resolutions to the School Boards Association Delegate Assembly in October. In November, Business Administrator William Doering and Polozzo met with the Resolution Subcommittee.
The Association is a federation of school boards throughout the state. If they endorse certain positions, it lends weight to them and could get policy makers in Trenton to listen.
The association’s staff vets resolutions before putting it out to the rest of the boards. Then, the boards would vote on it. The three motions stalled out at the subcommittee.
The first resolution would have asked for the SBA to advocate for a change in how equalized value is added together. When the state assesses how “rich” a town is, for lack of a better word, they add up the assessed value of all property.
However, some towns have PILOT programs (payment in lieu of taxes). When a developer is sinking a lot of money into a big project, they are not going to make money back on it right away. So, they cut a deal with the town that the town won’t tax them, sometimes up to 30 years. Instead, the developer pays an amount of money that grows every year until the end of the contract. Then, taxes take over.
The issue, as Toms River Schools sees it, is that these multi-million dollar PILOT developments don’t factor into a town’s assessments.
Toms River wanted the SBA to agree that PILOT programs should be included when determining how much state aid a district receives. Since this could hurt some towns, that new amount could be phased in over five years. For example, if a $10 million PILOT development is in a town, that town would have $2 million added to its assessments the first year, $4 million the second, etc.
The NJ SBA did not support this resolution because it would decrease aid to some of the towns, Polozzo said.
The second resolution would require the State Department of Education to annually provide documents explaining how state aid is calculated.
The lack of transparency has frustrated schools that lost aid. Toms River Schools has even sued for the information to be provided, but has so far been unsuccessful.
The SBA didn’t endorse this position either.
“Their opinion is that they already advocate for transparency,” she said.
The third resolution would prevent schools from receiving more aid if they aren’t up to date on revaluations.
Every town is supposed to have a revaluation whenever their property value is, on average, more than 15% away from what they are supposed to be. Then, the town hires a third party company to look at every piece of land and any buildings on it. They determine the new valuation of that property. That new value will be what your taxes will be based on.
However, there are towns where the average property tax is way past these limits. In other words, as land becomes more valuable every year, towns that don’t revaluate them are still going by old values. That makes them look like a more poor town than a town that’s following the law.
One of the policy positions Toms River put forward would be that towns that don’t follow the revaluations don’t receive the aid based on old values.
Ultimately, a town’s average property should assessed at 100% of what the market dictates. If they drop below 85%, the state orders them to do a revaluation.
According to 2023 state statistics, many towns are less than 85%. A great many of them are in the 60s or 70s. Some more egregious examples are: Elizabeth, in which values are 7.02% of where they should be, Union – 10.41%, Scotch Plains – 18.74%, Kearny – 19.38%, East Brunswick – 20.35%, West New York – 22.8%, Plainfield – 29.81%, Hillside – 31.01%, Linden – 31.71%, Kenilworth – 32.68%, Old Bridge – 33.49%, Roselle – 35.04, Edison – 36.48%, Rahway – 36.95%, Milltown – 37.18%, Cranford – 37.45%, Wayne – 37.91%, and Clifton – 38.64%.
The average percentage for Ocean County is 68.03% and the average percentage for Monmouth County is 90.9%. The average for the entire state is 71.28%.
If the School Boards Association had jumped on any of those policies, they would have put them out to their membership – school boards all over New Jersey. Those boards would have the opportunity to support them. Then, there would have been strength in numbers in getting change made.
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