{"id":756,"date":"2017-04-06T02:54:18","date_gmt":"2017-04-06T06:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/?p=756"},"modified":"2017-04-06T07:44:19","modified_gmt":"2017-04-06T11:44:19","slug":"toms-river-regional-budget-eliminates-17-positions-raises-taxes-3-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/2017\/04\/toms-river-regional-budget-eliminates-17-positions-raises-taxes-3-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Toms River Regional Budget Eliminates 17 Positions, Raises Taxes 3.6%"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The

The tax impact of the 2017-18 proposed Toms River Regional school budget. (Credit: TRRS)<\/p><\/div>Toms River residents will pay more toward their school\u00a0system this year under a budget unveiled at a citizens\u2019 advisory meeting Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

The district\u2019s $241,428,030 spending plan rose about $6 million from last year\u2019s $235,349,564 operating budget. The budget, plus debt service, will be supported by an increase in the tax levy of $6,920,406, to $157,529,467 \u2013 or 3.6 percent.<\/p>\n

For the owner of a home valued at $267,501, the Toms River average, school taxes will rise to $3,004 this year, compared to $2899 last year \u2013 an extra $105.65.<\/p>\n

The budget includes a total of 17 staff cuts, including one administrator, eight teachers, two secretaries, three facilities workers, one technology department employee and two security guards, according to a presentation given by Superintendent David Healy at the Wednesday night meeting.<\/p>\n

Tax Impact<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The

The tax impact of the 2017-18 proposed Toms River Regional school budget. (Credit: TRRS)<\/p><\/div>Healy is aiming to have the cuts be accomplished through attrition wherever possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe anticipiate that most, if not all, of these positions will be eliminated through attrition,\u201d said Healy. \u201cMy goal has always been to avoid putting people on the street.\u201d<\/p>\n

Board President Ben Giovine said if not for a slow-down in Sandy recovery or a lack of state aid, there likely would be no reason taxes would have to be increased this year. The ratable base has come to something of a standstill, according to Township Administrator Paul Shives. Recently, Giovine said both the school district and municipal government should lobby harder for more state aid<\/a> to support the school district, especially as other towns are receiving bailouts.<\/p>\n

Benefits\u00a0costs\u00a0will rise, overall, by $2,614,295 despite the elimination of the 17 positions, primarily driven by higher employee health insurance costs to the tune of 4.9 percent. Overall, $55,578,418\u00a0will be spent on benefits\u00a0programs, which also include increasing pension contribution costs.\u00a0Recently, the district tweaked its employee benefits contributions<\/a> under a new contract between the board and the Toms River Education Association. Business Administration Bill Doering said the health benefits increase was partially offset by some decreases in utilities and general administration costs.<\/p>\n

The district has decided to cut its operations and maintenance budget by 3.3 percent, and some of the health benefits increases have been tempered by decreases in utilities and administrative spending, said Doering.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s budget retains three proposed career academies in the district, including a performing and visual arts program at High School North, a Business program at High School South covering finance, entrepreneurship and real estate, and a STEAM program focusing on biomedicine, engineering and environmental stability, at High School East.<\/p>\n

Despite the proposed tax increase, the situation could have been worse had the district not been as conservative as it was with surplus accounts and spending in recent years.<\/p>\n

\u201cHad we not done everything we did the save funding, we would be on the front page of every paper with massive layoffs,\u201d said Giovine.<\/p>\n

Other Towns:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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

Toms River residents will pay more toward their school\u00a0system this year under a budget unveiled at a citizens\u2019 advisory meeting Wednesday night. The district\u2019s $241,428,030 spending plan rose about $6 million from last year\u2019s $235,349,564 operating budget. The budget, plus debt service, will be supported by an increase in the tax levy of $6,920,406, to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":759,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,5],"tags":[298,297,299,11,64,226],"class_list":["post-756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-toms-river-schools","tag-2017-18-school-year","tag-school-budget","tag-school-taxes","tag-toms-river-nj-news","tag-toms-river-regional-schools","tag-trrs"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Screen-Shot-2017-04-06-at-2.52.50-AM.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}