Howell Schools Will Lose $2.82M In State Aid Next Year

HOWELL, NJ — The Howell Township school district's school budget will be reduced by 11.21 percent for the Fiscal Year 2023, which is more than the previous year's reduction.

Earlier this month, Gov. Phil Murphy's administration proposed $19.2 billion for pre-K to 12 schools in New Jersey for Fiscal Year 2023, including an additional $649.8 million for K-12 aid, bringing total K-12 "formula" aid to $9.92 billion.

Read more: 2022 NJ School Aid: Who's Getting More, Who's Getting Less

Howell Township schools will receive a total of $22,342,232 in state aid from Murphy's budget, which is a decrease of $2,821,446 from the previous year.

New Jersey's school-funding formula for state aid comes from S2 — a controversial law passed in 2018 that modified how the state determines to allocate its funding for each district. FY2023 would be the fifth of seven state budgets that S2 will impact.

"The demographics of the state were out of sync to where the money was headed," Murphy said. "So we agreed to S2, which has a seven-year catch-up to where the demographics are in the state."

Related: Gov. Murphy's $49B NJ Budget Focuses On Property Taxes, Relief

State aid also plays a role in a district's decision to raise local property taxes. Many districts argue that budget cuts frequently force them to raise taxes on residents.