{"id":12995,"date":"2018-06-29T02:46:31","date_gmt":"2018-06-29T06:46:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=12995"},"modified":"2018-06-29T02:46:31","modified_gmt":"2018-06-29T06:46:31","slug":"proposed-school-tax-bill-would-mandate-crippling-22m-tax-hike-in-brick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2018\/06\/proposed-school-tax-bill-would-mandate-crippling-22m-tax-hike-in-brick\/","title":{"rendered":"Proposed School Tax Bill Would MANDATE ‘Crippling’ $22M Tax Hike in Brick"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Senate<\/a>

Senate President Stephen Sweeney. (Credit: NJ Spotlight)<\/p><\/div>\n

Brick schools officials dropped a bombshell at a Board of Education meeting Thursday when asked if layoffs might be required if a bill proposed by the state legislature cuts Brick\u2019s school funding by $22 million. The answer was \u2018no.\u2019<\/p>\n

The latest version of the bill, according to Business Administrator James Edwards, carves out a special category for several towns, including Brick. Under the terms of the bill, which has not yet been signed by Gov. Phil Murphy, Brick would be legally barred from cutting expenses. Instead, the state would force Brick to raise taxes by $22 million in seven years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not going to let us cut our budget or our expenditures,\u201d said Edwards. \u201cThey\u2019re going to make us raise $22 million over the next seven years. It\u2019s going to be a state-mandated tax increase. Every year that we lose [aid], the taxes will go up at that same amount.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brick, Edwards said, falls into a category under the state\u2019s funding formula that finds the township\u2019s taxes are too low to support the school district. Simultaneously, the formula finds Brick to be a wealthy community that can afford an increase. When a district falls under both of those categories, a tax increase is mandated. The funding gap can only be bridged by raising taxes \u2013 not by cutting expenses.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not going to have a choice,\u201d said Acting Superintendent Dennis Filippone. \u201cThey are not going to allow us to cut our budget.\u201d<\/p>\n

The news caught some taxpayers off guard since they were under the impression that cutting expenditures, utilizing layoffs or other cost-saving measures, could cushion the blow.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not only crippling us as a school district, they\u2019re crippling us as a community,\u201d said Board President Stephanie Wohlrab, who cited Brick\u2019s high foreclosure rate and the potential for more residents to be priced out of town. \u201cWhat they\u2019re proposing will cripple Brick as a community.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are about 1,800 homes in Brick that are at risk of being foreclosed upon, or are already in the process, an expert in the field said this week at a township council meeting. Brick\u2019s foreclosure rate is well above the national and state averages.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoes that seem like a large number to you, because it does to me,\u201d said resident Vic Fanelli.<\/p>\n

The budget bill that would slash Brick\u2019s school funding and raise taxes is being backed by Senate President Stephen Sweeney. Gov. Phil Murphy has refused to sign it, but the conversation in recent days has mainly focused on whether to raise the state\u2019s \u201cmillionaires\u2019 tax\u201d or the corporate business tax. The school funding realignment was part of a compromise bill that was proposed this week, but not signed by Murphy.<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s fiscal year ends July 1. If no budget is in place by then, Murphy could order a shutdown.<\/p>\n

District officials said if the funding is cut, there are no easy answers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t really know how we would start to make up that shortfall,\u201d said Filippone.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brick schools officials dropped a bombshell at a Board of Education meeting Thursday when asked if layoffs might be required if a bill proposed by the state legislature cuts Brick\u2019s school funding by $22 million. The answer was \u2018no.\u2019 The latest version of the bill, according to Business Administrator James Edwards, carves out a special […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[13],"tags":[24,921,1028,2870,2118],"class_list":["post-12995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brick-schools","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-property-taxes","tag-school-funding-formula","tag-school-tax","tag-tax-increase"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/2143.jpeg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-3nB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}