West Orange School Board Approves Budget; Here’s The Tax Impact

WEST ORANGE, NJ — The West Orange Board of Education has given a final thumbs-up to the district’s 2022-2023 budget, which will include a 2.42 percent tax increase for local homeowners.

The board unanimously approved the district’s annual spending plan at their May 9 meeting (watch the video below). It will mean a yearly tax increase of $218 for a home assessed at $336,282 – similar to what administrators predicted at a preliminary budget hearing in March.

Interim Superintendent C. Lauren Schoen discussed revenues and expenditures at the meeting, noting that the budget includes:

• “All current staff and instructional, extracurricular and athletic programs”
• “Various capital projects district-wide”
• “Additional staff based on program need”

Spending for the year will include:

• Salaries - $107.74 million (58.6%)
• Benefits - $30.53 million (16.61%)
• Special Education (including transportation) - $21.35 million (11.61%)
• Operations/Maintenance/Security - $7.27 million (3.96%)
• Instruction and Support - $7.1 million (3.86%)
• General Education Transportation - $6.5 million (3.54%)
• Capital Outlay – $2.9 million (1.57%)
• Charter School Tuition - $468,442 (0.25%)

Administrators previously said the district would have faced a massive shortfall if West Orange didn’t get the highest school aid increase in Essex County under the governor's proposed state aid package – a 44.27 percent jump from last year. Read More: West Orange Will Get More School Aid From NJ Under Murphy Plan

Property taxes in New Jersey are made up of three parts: school, municipal and county. Here's how that broke down in West Orange last year:

• School – 61.1%
• Municipal – 25.7%
• County – 13.2%

TOWN BUDGET

A public hearing for the 2022 West Orange municipal budget was originally scheduled for May 3, but was postponed when a council member became ill, according to the town clerk's office. Read More: West Orange Town, School Budgets Await Public Hearings

The hearing was then rescheduled for May 9. However, it has been postponed again, the municipal finance department recently told Patch. A future date hadn’t been set at the time.

• See related article: West Orange Homeowners Pay 53rd Highest Property Taxes In NJ
• See related article: Tax Gap In Essex County: Many Wealthier Towns Pay Lower Rates

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