On April 21st, Bridgewater and Raritan residents are scheduled to vote on the school budget. Unless changes are made, that budget will rise by $4.5 million to $133.3 million, a 3.5% increase.
The B-R Board of Education and its Administration may remind you that this is the lowest percent increase in seven years. What they may not emphasize is that the $4.5 million hike occurs as school enrollment has slowly and steadily decreased from 9,197 students in 2006 to an expected 9,128 students in the fall of 2009.
Meanwhile, other governmental entities are also struggling with budgets – at least one with better results. The Somerset County freeholders are decreasing spending by 2.6%, from $220.2 million last year, to a proposed $214.4 million – no increase in your taxes from this source. In Bridgewater, the Mayor and the Township Council anticipate a drop in state aid of $327,154, a 4% decline from last year. Raritan will see its aid drop by $21,352.
Out of 40 school districts in Somerset and Hunterdon counties, only one in four is seeing any increase at all. The B-R School District is one of the lucky few to receive a $573,141 (5%) increase, for a total of $12 million, or 9% of next year’s budget. How would you like to have someone pay 9% of your annual expenses?
The money well in Trenton is drying up, and the B-R School District has done a less than stellar job of linking its budgets to the economic conditions that the rest of us have had to deal with each year and every day. The B-R School Board needs to envision its role much more holistically: It is merely one among other legitimate claimants to the resources of the residents of Bridgewater and Raritan.
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