B-R BOE Budget Reduction Options

A few refreshers: The preliminary budget for the 2010/2011 school year has been submitted to the Somerset County Superintendent of Schools, Trudy Doyle. That budget does not include the last round of $4.4 million of cuts due to the final reduction of state aid. That is why the Bridgewater-Raritan Board of Education has to decide this week how to handle the final reduction.

The B-R BOE has already presented the four options below to the public:

1. Pass all or a portion of the cost onto the taxpayer by invoking an automatic tax waiver, exceeding the 4% cap on the tax levy. That final revised budget would still have to be approved by the County Superintendent of Schools before being placed on April’s ballot.

2. Insert additional spending proposals on the ballot as separate spending question(s) for voter consideration in the April 20th election, also exceeding the 4% cap. This requires the County Superintendent’s approval prior to budget insertion, and would also require at least 60% voter approval.

3. Implement some combination of the first two options, exceeding the 4% cap as well.

4. Maintain the tax levy increase at its current 4% cap level by absorbing the $4.4M as spending reductions.

However, there is a fifth option that was not part of the mix presented by the B-R BOE last Thursday evening: That is the possibility of still holding the three bargaining units, the BREA (teachers), the BRPA (principals), and the BRSA (supervisors), to a wage freeze. The Board President has made it clear that he and the Negotiations Team had been in discussions on the topic, but could not disclose any specific data.

Yet there are clues. BREA President Steve Beatty has made public statements of his desire to get involved. At the B-R BOE meeting on February 23rd, for example, Mr. Beatty expressed his wish for the BREA to, “…Let us help in restoring funding . . . let us do the right thing, not the popular thing.” He also mentioned the word “lobbying” in his statement to the Board.

Later, during the public portion of the March 18th B-R BOE meeting, Mr. Beatty reinforced that view when he said, “Let us in the process. Let us be part of the process,” he asked.

It sounds good, depending on the results and the nature of the process. But the idea of a wage freeze on next year’s 4.35% scheduled wage hike sounds better.

At least one other option can be imputed from the nature of what we already know. And that is the possibility of the B-R BOE and the bargaining units linking wage concessions to a waiver of the 4% spending cap, or the inclusion of a second ballot question also exceeding the 4% spending cap. Not a good idea.