What You Were Saying at the Polls

Barnegat Patch hit the polls Wednesday along with residents to find out where opinion lay on the school budget and Board of Education candidates. As the , the margin of victory for the budget was narrow, and residents were divided when it came to the issue of the district's spending.

Many in the township said they voted in favor of the budget because they feared more deep cuts to education would result if it failed as it did last year.

Diane Bennett-Chase, a retired district elementary school teacher, said she supported the tax levy. “I know how hard they’re trying,” she said. “There’s been enough cuts. Too many cuts.” 

Former school board member Derek Davis said he cast a mixed ballot when it came to the candidates, but he fully supported the budget.

“I know a fair budget and what it entails,” he said. If it were to go down, “these kids lose the sports and extracurricular activities after school. That’s detrimental to the town.”

If residents don’t want to see property values slip more, he said, they should support the schools. “Your community is only worth what you put into it.”

The parents who spoke to Patch had similar feelings on the budget, saying they saw a rejection of the spending plan as a direct threat to programs that their children need and love. 

Elizabeth Wright’s daughter attended the district’s special education preschool, the Collins School, she said. After voting at Township Hall, Wright said she doesn’t want to see programs like it disappear.

“Now she’s mainstreamed, but I don’t know she would have been able to do that without (the preschool program),” Wright said. “It’s amazing what they did for my child.”

But while taking a break from working the polls at Pheasant Run, Frank Pecci said the feeling he got was that many people were motivated by last year’s tax increases to slap down the district’s budget. The same frustrations led to about half the state’s districts rejecting budgets last year, he said, and he expected to see similar, if not stronger, anti-budget response Wednesday.

“I think maybe you’re going to see more of them fail,” he said.

For Mike and Loretta Reilly of Heritage Point, who cast their votes at Pecci’s busy polling station, the vote came down to money matters.

“It’s the tax issue I’m most concerned about,” said Loretta, explaining why she voted down the budget. She’d been frustrated to learn that taxpayer money goes to pay for college credits for district employees, she said.

Mike said the district’s salary packages for administrators are too costly. “They get paid way too much,” he said. It all results in property taxes that are high and getting higher.

“It’s sad in Jersey with these taxes,” he said.

Many others who filed in and out of the Pheasant Run clubhouse Wednesday afternoon expressed similar feelings, though they declined to be quoted on the record. Voting down the budget was a way to send a message to the district that they were looking for frugality and further cuts, said residents.

That’s what many in the township expected to hear out of the senior communities. After voting at Barnegat High School in the early afternoon, Michael P. Howard expressed doubts that the budget would carry because of a strong tide of “no” votes from the over-65 demographic.

“Some people think that by voting (the budget) down, they're solving something,” said Howard, who is running alongside Committeeman Leonard Morano in the uncontested Democratic primary race for Township Committee. “It solves nothing."

When last year’s budget failed, cuts made by the Township Committee were absorbed by increases in municipal spending anyway, he said.