Newark Residents May Face Big Hike To School Taxes For 2016-17

Newark, NJ – Newark residents may face a 6.2 percent hike to the school portion of their city taxes next year if the district’s proposed budget is approved.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka railed against the potential tax increase in a Tuesday statement, saying that the proposed budget would force city residents to “pay for bad decisions by state officials.”

The amount that would need to be raised via local property taxes under the draft 2016-17 budget would increase from $115.65 million to $127.56 million, a 10.3 percent hike, Baraka stated.

• See the Newark Public School District’s “user-friendly” 2016-17 budget presentation here.

“It is the responsibility of the state, not Newark taxpayers – to eliminate the need for a school tax increase,” Baraka stated. “I urge the Newark Public Schools to delay final submission of the school budget to give the state time to come up with revenues needed to avoid a tax increase.”

The mayor blamed the increased taxpayer cost on the following:

• A “hole left in the budget” by state-appointed School Superintendent Cami Anderson’s One Newark Plan
• The EWPS list (Employees without Placement Sites) of Cami Anderson that “forced the Newark Public Schools to pay twice for every unassigned teacher on the list”
• The expansion of charter schools “without regard for the impact of that expansion on the budget of the remaining traditional public schools”

Sign up for Patch NJ email newsletters here.