2013-14 School Budget Could Lower Taxes for Some

Some Cherry Hill taxpayers could see a tax decrease under the preliminary $174 million budget introduced to unanimous approval by the school board Tuesday night, but it’s not yet clear how much of the township would see a savings under the recently completed revaluation, school officials said.

Despite a $2.7 million increase in the tax levy, a homeowner assessed at the new township average of $223,500—up from about $140,000 last year—would see a drop of $222 in school taxes for the 2013-2014 school year, from $4,766 down to $4,544, administrators said.

The school tax rate itself swung wildly under the revaluation, dropping from $3.40 per $100 of assessed value down to an estimated $2.033 per $100 of assessed value—a figure that could still change, given the revaluation isn’t locked in yet, according to Jim Devereaux, the district’s assistant superintendent for business.

“Obviously, that’s a very large reduction,” he said. “People shouldn’t automatically assume…that their taxes are going to drop by that amount.”

In fact, some homes in the township are likely to see their taxes rise, Devereaux said previously, especially in older neighborhoods, where there was a more drastic change under the revaluation.

Taxes are also complicated by the jump in the township’s ratable base, which spiked up more than 70 percent, from $4.4 billion up to close to $7.6 billion, Devereaux said. Some of the burden is being shifted to the commercial and industrial base, which accounts for the drop for a homeowner assessed at the new average.

The only resident to speak, among three who attended the meeting, hammered the state for not kicking in more to the district, effectively creating an artificially high property tax rate.

“We’re sky-high…we’re not getting our share of our adequacy budget from the state,” Jeff Podowitz said. “It’s the taxpayers of Cherry Hill and the students that are getting hurt the most.”

But, as school board members pointed out, beyond pushing legislators to do more—and several board members are slated to meet next week with the local representatives to the state Senate and Assembly—there’s little that can be done about state aid, which was essentially flat this year to Cherry Hill.

“The fact of the matter is, we get what we get from the state,” board member Steve Robbins said. “We’ll say our peace—the chance of that actually changing anything is pretty small. While I agreee that we should be getting more from the state…we can only control what’s in front of us.”

Robbins pointed to the slow growth in spending over the last five years as evidence the district’s been able to exert that control—spending this year is up just 1.6 percent, with the bulk of the increase coming from special education and out-of-district placements, which make up $1.88 million of the $2.74 million increase in spending.

Those figures represent a 5.6-percent increase for special education and a 15.29-percent increase for out-of district placements, as compared to a 2.37-percent increase for regular education, which comes to about $1.2 million over last year.

“You can see the difference between regular instruction and the costs associated with special education,” Superintendent Maureen Reusche said. “That doesn’t make us different from any other district, in terms of those rising costs.”

While the budget was largely unchanged from versions discussed at several school board budget sessions over the last month, there were a handful of changes to balance out increases in charter school costs and the district’s debt service, Devereaux said.

Administrators were able to cut $90,000 from out-of-district placements and $75,000 from the capital budget to balance the books.

The budget goes up for public hearing and final adoption March 21.