Tax Hike Imminent As West Orange School Budget Hits Finish Line

WEST ORANGE, NJ — The West Orange Board of Education narrowly approved the district’s school budget this week, clearing the way for a 2.66 percent hike to the school portion of local homeowners’ property taxes.

Acting Superintendent Hayden Moore gave the district’s final budget presentation for the 2023-2024 school year during the board’s meeting on Monday. See the full presentation online here, and watch a video of the May 8 meeting here.

A West Orange home assessed at $336,591 will see a $309 tax increase, bringing the school portion of its annual tax bill to $9,495. It’s a tax impact that is slightly higher than an earlier estimate of a $296 increase shared earlier this year.

According to Moore’s presentation, some highlights to the spending plan include:

• “Support for increased student enrollment in our schools and specialized programs”
• “Maintaining our existing instructional staff”
• “Maintaining our instructional, extracurricular and athletic programs”

The budget includes about $4.3 million in capital projects, such as playground replacement at Washington School, elevator replacement at WOHS, and auditorium refurbishments at the high school.

The budget also includes additional staff: custodian at WOHS (1), security guards (7 full-time, one for WOHS and one for each elementary school), ESL teachers (1), primary autism teachers (1), speech language specialist (1), world language teacher (1), preK-5 supervisor of special services (1), math interventionalists (3), assistant fencing coach (1), administrative assistant (1). It also includes 10 additional days for administrative assistants or clerical aides to support elementary schools in the summer.

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The board voted 3-2 to approve the budget, with its members explaining the reasons behind their votes at the end of the meeting (watch the video below). Melinda Huerta and Robert Ivker voted no; Eric Stevenson, Jennifer Tunnicliffe and Brian Rock voted yes.

“If we limit to just 2 percent – which is the standard by state law, it used to be a lot higher and boards used to go far beyond that – we cannot keep pace with the costs that go up for everything that we spend,” Rock said prior to the vote.

“If you look over the last 10 years, the tax levy in this district has grown less than inflation,” the board president continued. “In real dollars, we are collecting less money today than we were 10 years ago. The only reason we are continuing to serve our students is because state aid has increased. Without that, we would be cutting to the bone.”

• See Related: NJ Budget Will Impact West Orange School Aid (See How Much)

MUNICIPAL BUDGET

Property taxes in New Jersey are generally made up of three parts: school, municipal and county. Read More: Average Property Tax Bill In West Orange Is Growing, Latest Data Shows

Here’s how that played out in West Orange last year (numbers rounded up):

• School – 61.7%
• Municipal – 26%
• County – 12.4%

A financial crunch may be headed West Orange’s way this year under the proposed town budget, with homeowners facing a possible hike of 16 percent to the municipal portion of their taxes. Read More: Some West Orange Residents Are Fuming Over 16% Proposed Tax Hike

Township business administrator John Gross gave the council an update at their May 2 meeting, calling the upcoming process “the most difficult budget that any of you will experience hopefully in your career.”

“In order to come up with solutions, it is going to take the cooperation and collaboration of the administration and the council,” he said, adding that cuts in programming and staffing and the consideration of “alternative revenues” may be among the choices that need to be made.

The town council has set a date for a first hearing on the budget for 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 18.

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