{"id":4009,"date":"2015-03-20T05:29:51","date_gmt":"2015-03-20T09:29:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=4009"},"modified":"2015-03-20T02:13:14","modified_gmt":"2015-03-20T06:13:14","slug":"brick-boe-puts-off-budget-introduction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2015\/03\/brick-boe-puts-off-budget-introduction\/","title":{"rendered":"Brick BOE Puts Off Introduction of $147M Budget"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Brick<\/a>

Brick Township Board of Education\/Schools (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

The Brick T0wnship Board of Education failed to introduce its tentative 2015-16 budget Thursday night as scheduled after board members decided to vote against the proposal once new information was revealed about a potential tax increase.<\/p>\n

At the meeting, it was determined that the tax levy, as proposed, increased by 1.8 percent \u2013 an amount more than board members were comfortable with. While just a tentative budget would have been introduced, board members felt they needed more time to hammer out a better plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know that we can get it down to zero, but we want to get it as low as we can get it,\u201d Board President Sharon Cantillo said of any potential rise in the tax levy. \u201cI don\u2019t feel, at this point, with the information I\u2019ve been privy to, that we\u2019ve exhausted every efficiency.\u201d<\/p>\n

At one point in the meeting, Finance Committee chair Karyn Cusanelli expressed frustration with Business Administrator James Edwards over the clarity of documents provided to board members and the speed at which they were turned over. Board President Sharon Cantillo, likewise, expressed frustration, but an argument was ultimately avoided as board members and Edwards, who appeared perturbed by the criticism, delved into a deeper discussion into the district\u2019s finances.<\/p>\n

A miscommunication was at the heart of the decision to delay the budget\u2019s introduction, as a committee of board members had been working under the premise that the tax levy was going to rise 0.9 percent this year, while the documents presented at Thursday night\u2019s meeting indicated a 1.8 percent increase. The discrepancy had to do with the difference between the district\u2019s regular operating budget and debt service payments coming due this year. Combined, the budget and debt service obligations equaled a 1.8 percent total hike in the tax levy, leading board members to pull back on the budget introduction.<\/p>\n

Edwards said the debt service payments alone will force a 0.9 percent tax levy increase. The debt, which has been raised over the course of many years, totals approximately $16 million, according to Edwards.<\/p>\n

The now-failed $147,703,870 budget proposal included debt service payments of $2,688,428. The proposed tax levy \u2013 the portion paid by local residents through property taxes \u2013 was to be $98,501,193 to support the operating budget and $2,378,131 to fund the debt service, for a total of $100,879,324. In comparison, the 2014-15 school budget was $146,520,788, supported by a total tax levy of $99,113,095.<\/p>\n

Edwards estimated that, as proposed, the budget would have raised taxes by about $50 for the average Brick homeowner.<\/p>\n

Cantillo said the committee and district officials, as well as former board member Larry Reid, who is volunteering his time to assist with financial issues, will continue to work on the budget and introduce a modified plan soon.<\/p>\n

New Jersey requires school districts to introduce their budgets by March 20, a deadline Brick will now miss. Jack Sahradnik, the board attorney, advised Edwards to notify the Ocean County Executive Superintendent of Schools of the vote.<\/p>\n

Sahradnik said the board will have to hold a special meeting \u201cas soon as possible\u201d to introduce a budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my mind, whether it\u2019s tentative or it\u2019s permanent, I just didn\u2019t think this was a good idea tonight,\u201d said Cantillo. \u201cWe have more work to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

The Brick T0wnship Board of Education failed to introduce its tentative 2015-16 budget Thursday night as scheduled after board members decided to vote against the proposal once new information was revealed about a potential tax increase. At the meeting, it was determined that the tax levy, as proposed, increased by 1.8 percent \u2013 an amount […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3140,"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":false,"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":[1120,41,24],"class_list":["post-4009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brick-schools","tag-2015-16-school-budget","tag-board-of-education","tag-brick-nj-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/DSC_0004.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-12F","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4009","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=4009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}