School District's Additional State Aid Will Not Change Tax Rate

An extra $1.95 million in state aid to Toms River Regional Schools will help fill an anticipated revenue hole in the 2012-13 school year instead of offsetting taxes for the , officials said.

A main reason behind banking the state aid in the 2012-13 school budget was a quickly approaching deadline to accomplish the discussion, debate, approval by the board and then approval by the county superintendent for a new .

“In terms of practicality, all the speaking, discussing and weighing all the options would have to unfold still. Then getting all the approvals — getting that done before tomorrow is just not feasible,” said Toms River Regional Schools Business Administrator William Doering yesterday. The deadline to amend the tax rate is today.

However, Brick Township schools held an emergency meeting of its school board last night to determine whether to recalculate its current budget, thus reestablishing the tax rate there. Doering said he and Superintendent Frank Roselli agreed it wasn’t possible to consider such an avenue.

Doering also said voters in each of the towns that make up Toms River Regional already went to the polls to approve the current budget, another reason behind the decision to defer the new aid into the 2012-13 school year and not amend the current budget.

“We’ve had this budget in place since they’ve voted April 27,” Doering said.

By putting the money in the 2012-13 budget plan, the district will aim to close a $2.4 million anticipated revenue gap in that year, Doering said.

The business administrator said federal stimulus funding will dry out this year, and by allotting the $1.95 million in newly awarded state aid then, it will help offset the lost $2.4 million revenue.

“Here we have this huge revenue hole, and then here comes additional state aid. This allotment will plug that hole,” Doering said.

“The news couldn’t have come at a better time,” he said. “It really helps us with the long-term financial planning of the district.”

Doering said that if the funding had not come through, the loss of the federal aid would mean the district would have likely carved out a spending cut to balance the budget next year.

“We’d have to evaluate any number of options, but with the additional state aid it will now not be impacting programming or staffing levels,” Doering said.

Essentially, the additional state aid will help keep services level for the 2012-13 school year, Doering said.

For Toms River residents, the tax rate grew this year to $0.7389 per $100, up from $0.706 per $100.

In Toms River, where an average home is assessed at $376,778, the school tax amounts to a $2,784 annual tax payment.

This means an increase of 3.3 cents per $100 over 2010-11, adding $124 more in taxes levied for the average assessed home in Toms River.

The additional state aid was awarded last week. Statewide, $850 million more dollars were awarded to school districts, said Gov. Chris Christie in a prepared statement.

“This year, New Jersey increased state aid to school districts by $850 million over last year, restoring every dollar of the cuts we were forced to make last year and increasing aid by an additional $30 million. We are keeping faith with our commitment to New Jersey’s children and families, spending more money per pupil on New Jersey’s students than almost any other state in the country,” said Christie.

“Now is the time to complement the dollars spent with real education reform to bring a focus on student learning, accountability and results.”