Freeholders Bemoan State Budget Rules

“Fatal error’’ the computer screen blinked at Frank J. Frazee, secretary and business administrator for the Ocean County Vocational Technical Schools when he tried to include a $150,000 cut in county aid on a state budget spreadsheet.

Nobody died, but Ocean County’s freeholders were screaming bloody murder Wednesday about their inability to cut that sum from the school district budget – after the vocational-technical Board of Education agreed to the cut.

Standing in the way of Frazee’s completion of the spreadsheet, and the intention of the freeholders to pare the budget, is a state law requiring school districts to raise a “minimum tax levy,’’ according to Yut’se O. Thomas, an acting assistant state education commissioner.

“No municipal governing body or bodies or board of school estimate... shall certify a general fund tax levy which does not meet the required local share provisions,’’ he said in a March 22 memo.

The result bars the freeholders from trimming the vocational-technical school budget. They will have no trouble transferring funds to make up that sum in their own budget, according to Freeholder John C. Bartlett Jr.

“It won’t change the tax rate,’’ said Carl W. Block, Ocean County’s administrator.

Irate freeholders called for a change in the law before next year’s budgets are prepared.

One, John P. Kelly, voted against the budget and county tax share when it was presented yesterday afternoon to the Board of School Estimate for the vocational-technical school.

Two others, Gerry P. Little and Joseph H. Vicari, voted for the spending package along with Nina Anuario and Joseph Harding of the vocational-technical board.

The district budget amounts to $25.1 million with a county share of $17.4 million.

“I voted 'no’' reluctantly,’’ Kelly explained. We wanted to cut $150,000,’’ but the state blocked the cuts.

“Yesterday’s rules no longer apply. It makes no sense. I’m very disappointed,’’ he said, calling for a change in the law.

He said the state is supposed to pay 40 percent of the cost of running the vocational system but pays “only half that.’’

“I’m utterly frustrated,’’ Bartlett complained.

“A hundred and fifty thousand dollars isn’t going to break the bank’’ but there have been cuts in spending in every department, he said.

He launched into a broadside against the Legislature and Gov. Chris Christie, charging:

The state’s 2 percent spending cap is “total baloney for Ocean County,’’ pointing out that the 1977 cap put tougher limits on the county’s spending than the new one. Both are still on the books, and the county had to abide by both of them.

“That’s Trenton. It’s a ridiculous way of doing business,’’ he said.

Christie wants the power to veto the minutes of authorities like the Ocean County Utilities Authority, Bartlett said. “They can’t pay their own bills in Trenton,’’ he charged, saying he will invite Christie to Ocean County to see how the vocational schools and the OCUA operate.

Block called the law barring the cut in the vocational-technical school budget “another silly law that needs to be changed.’’

Lawmakers from both parties are promising to introduce bills to clear the roadblock.

Little joined the chorus, assailing a bill awaiting Christie’s signature that would permit Ocean County to assess property owners for stormwater management project costs.

The freeholders will fire off a letter to Christie Thursday urging him to veto the bill or make sure the state pays the cost of implementing it. The legislation was passed in response to the declining water quality in Barnegat Bay.

It is the latest round in a tug of war between the Republican county officials and Democrats in the Legislature to address the bay’s pollution.

Little claimed state highway corridors in the county are the “biggest contributors’’ to stormwater pollution of the bay.