Bridgewater-Raritan School Tax Assessment Shifts Unfavorably for Raritan

In 2007, at the request of Mayor Jo-Ann Liptak, the President of the Bridgewater-Raritan School Board, Al Smith, appeared before the Raritan Borough Council. He came to field questions about why this regional school district experienced a shift of over $900,000 in tax levies from Bridgewater to Raritan in the last two budget periods.

Mr. Smith, who is Raritan’s sole elected representative on the BR-BOE, explained that the school board had absolutely no control over that number. He is correct in that the expense allocation charged individually to Bridgewater and to Raritan taxpayers is set by a formula established by the State of New Jersey. It produces a ratio based upon the separate ratables of each municipality.

In past years, that ratio has shifted between Bridgewater and Raritan, sometimes by a little, sometimes by a lot. In some periods, Bridgewater has taken the greater hit. Recently, Raritan is getting whacked. There is absolutely no sense to that formula. Reason? It’s based on ratables and, for those of us who have been here long enough to remember, New Jersey passed an income tax in 1976, precisely because real estate taxes had grown too burdensome to carry the load.

The bottom line is this: The Bridgewater-Raritan School District is one of the most privileged in New Jersey, yet its budget continues to grow each year at the maximum allowed state cap. Were it not for that state-imposed limit, the budget would be even higher, as would your tax bill.

Bridgewater has been debatably fortunate because of its particularly large base of commercial tax ratables. Raritan has not had the same benefit. But just introduce disproportionate real estate growth into the Borough and what happens? It gets kicked in the teeth. (Additionally, Raritan’s ratables are affected by a 2006 reevaluation.)

“Plus que ça change, plus que c’est la même chose.” That’s French for “The more things change, the more they are the same.”


Note: 1. On Wednesday, January 16, at 9:00 AM, there will be a presentation of the 2008-2009 school budget at the Wade Administration building on Newmans Lane in Martinsville.

2. The Bridgewater-Raritan Schools web site is at http://www.brrsd.k12.nj.us/ . Al Smith’s letter-to-the-editor on this topic appeared December 25, 2007 in the Courier News.