New Bill May Legally Force Collingswood Schools To Raise Taxes

COLLINGSWOOD, NJ — The Collingswood Public School District is among 30 school districts that may be forced to raise taxes by next year, under controversial legislation signed Tuesday by Gov. Phil Murphy.

The legislation comes from Senate President Steve Sweeney, who essentially won a budget battle earlier this year over school funding that prevented a state shutdown.

The legislation modifies the state's school funding law, making the reforms that Sweeney says are needed to allow the school aid formula to realize its goal of “providing full and fair funding for all of New Jersey's school districts.”

The bill, S-2, would phase out the “adjustment aid” that continues to compensate districts for students they no longer have and eliminate the “growth caps” that deny other districts funds for enrollment growth.

Collingswood residents, as a result, would not only see their state aid reduced, but the district would be legally forced to raise taxes by 2 percent beginning in the 2019-20 school year.

Growth caps on aid for increased enrollment would be eliminated starting in the 2019-2020 school year and the adjustment aid that has continued to flow to overfunded districts would be phased out over seven school years.

Earlier this month, Murphy announced that Collingswood would receive $10,484,844 in state aid for the 2018-19 school year, about $4,000 less than what was initially promised, but $108,889 more than what it received last year.

Collingswood School District Business Administrator Beth Ann Coleman said the district was able to absorb the $4,000 hit from what was expected, but was discouraged by the state’s late announcement.

“It makes planning for the future very difficult,” Coleman said. “We line up our decision-making with their calendar schedule, but they don’t have to follow their own schedule. … It’s discouraging they couldn’t get their act together sooner.”

The district had a retirement this year, so the district was able to revise its budget by cutting salaries.
As for the 2 percent increase, she said the district is already at the 2 percent cap.

“Where else can we go? We’re going to have to start cutting our budget,” Coleman said.

See related:
Murphy To Sign Bill That May Legally Hike Taxes On 30 Districts
State Aid Increase For Collingswood Schools

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