Aid figures are out and it appears that the governor is keeping his word to suburban schools. South Brunswick is looking at a 5 percent increase ($20.16 million from $19.2 million), Monroe ($4.33 million from $4.2 million) and Cranbury 3 percent ($727,735 from $706,539) and Jamesburg a whopping 8.3 percent ($3.96 million from $3.66 million) — not huge increases by any stretch, but more than any hike in a long time.
While the aid increases should help offset the need for some property taxes, they remain far below what is necessary to help growing districts like Monroe and South Brunswick keep up with the particular intersection of enrollment hikes and inflation with which they must live.
Consider, however, that South Brunswick will be looking at a budget of something in the neighborhood of $125 million, meaning that state aid makes up just 15 percent of the total. The percentage in Cranbury is about 6 percent.
For the state to address the property tax problem, it will need to address this funding flaw. I don’t know what the correct number is, but if the state paid about half the cost of education in a district like South Brunswick, it would cut between 50 and 60 cents off a $2-plus tax rate. The same kind of percentage cuts would be felt across the state.
That said, the state would need to come up with the money for the aid — either by raising taxes or through some other creative, but sustainable way of raising revenue.
I don’t know if this is the correct approach, but it a drastic approach, a wholesale revision of the way we do business as opposed to the nibbling at the edges envisioned by the four joint committees.
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Hank Kalet 