Essex County Will Get Most School Aid In NJ By Wide Margin

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — Essex County will get the most aid for schools in the entire state under the latest budget proposal from the administration of Gov. Phil Murphy.

Murphy's proposal carves out $19.2 billion for New Jersey pre-K to 12 schools in the fiscal year 2023 budget. Read More: NJ School Aid: Who's Getting More, Who's Getting Less

State aid is an influential factor in a school district's share of property taxes. Many districts say that cuts – or even flat spending – forces them to raise taxes for local homeowners.

Property taxes in New Jersey are made up of three parts: school, municipal and county. Last year, the average property owner in the state paid roughly 52.9 percent of their total for school taxes, 29.4 percent for municipal taxes and 17.8 percent for county taxes.

Overall, Essex County will see an 11.44 percent bump in school aid, putting its total at $1.64 billion, the highest of any county in New Jersey by a wide margin. Passaic County has the next-highest total at $968.62 million, a 6.66 percent increase from last year.

Some Essex County highlights included:

• The state’s largest city, Newark, will also get the most school aid ($1.04 billion).
• Only one municipality, Nutley, will get less state aid than last year. East Orange’s aid will remain flat.
• West Orange will see the highest increase in state aid (44.27 percent).

Here are the anticipated state aid totals for each public school district in Essex County:

• Belleville - $43,951,378 (23.97% increase)
• Bloomfield - $45,609,524 (28.07% increase)
• Caldwell-West Caldwell - $2,905,519 (19.64% increase)
• Cedar Grove - $1,817,550 (21.57% increase)
• East Orange - $175,087,372 (0% increase)
• Essex County Voc-Tech - $29,601,481 (7.8% increase)
• Essex Fells - $243,499 (24.37% increase)
• Fairfield- $817,543 (24.87% increase)
• Glen Ridge - $1,937,530 (20.27% increase)
• Irvington - $130,893,074 (2.32% increase)
• Livingston - $7,368,809 (21.79% increase)
• Millburn - $5,502,303 (21.88% increase)
• Montclair - $8,413,637 (4.73% increase)
• Newark - $1,035,927,916 (13.21% increase)
• North Caldwell - $809,755 (27.62% increase)
• Nutley - $7,970,806 (4.99% decrease)
• Orange - $102,461,303 (10.35% increase)
• Roseland - $571,190 (20.04% increase)
• South Orange-Maplewood - $8,287,062 (15.02% increase)
• Verona - $2,263,911 (19.47% increase)
• West Essex Regional - $2,298,224 (16.11% increase)
• West Orange - $29,372,985 (44.27% increase)

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