Middletown School Board Votes To Raise Taxes Up To 10.1 Percent

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — On Tuesday night, the Middletown school board bypassed a proposal to raise school property taxes 5.88 percent, and instead took a 7-2 vote to allow the district to increase the town's school taxes as high as 10.1 percent as it prepares its 2025-'26 school year budget.

It was Board member Joe Fitzgerald who first suggested the Board increase the school tax levy up to 10.1 percent.

"The 5.88-percent increase puts us right back where we are now. It prolongs us. It does not give us a strategic plan," said Fitzgerald Tuesday night. "The 5.88 gets us to next year and it just gets worse and worse from there ... I don't like raising taxes, but this is the future for our kids."

"A 5.88-percent tax increase will lead us to the same position that we are in today one year from now," said Deb Wright.

Out of the nine-member board, Frank Capone and Jacqueline Tobacco were the only two members to vote against the 10.1 percent increase.

"I have supported our superintendent from the beginning. I thought she proposed a plan that was fiscally responsible and protected our teachers," said Tobacco. "I think there is still room to come to a middle ground with our tax base. But I represent the entire town of Middletown. Not just the parents here, but the senior citizens too, and the people who have begged us not to go up to 10 percent. I cannot in good conscience — I will not support up to a 10.1-percent increase in this economy and with people struggling."

Capone was also a "no" vote, saying he echoed what Tobacco said.

It was Capone and Tobacco, because they sit on the shared services committee, that met with Middletown Mayor Tony Perry last week and came up with the 5.88 percent plan: Perry and Capone agreed on a plan where the district and town would split the expense of armed police officers in Middletown schools, and the district agreed to sell a 10-acre lot to the Township, which Perry has been eyeing for the past year. That proposed plan, coupled with some staff layoffs, would have raised the school tax levy 5.88 percent.

The problem? Nearly the entire rest of the Board said they were excluded from how this plan was concocted, and in general they feel shut out of how the Board operates.

"I was really disappointed tonight that we have not discussed as a board any of this budget stuff," said Board member Joan Minnuies. "In my 23 years on the board I've never seen anything like that. This board seriously needs to start meeting together as a board."

"I found out a lot of this budget was done in secrecy .... I am hoping going forward that we are all included in this," said Mark Soporowski Tuesday night.

And like Soporowski, Wright depicted the 5.88 proposal from Capone/Perry as a backroom deal cooked up in secret.

"I was not part of this meeting with the Township that made this deal and I don't think several other board members were, either," she said.

"It was shared services — " Capone said.

"I'm sorry, I'm speaking now," Wright shot back. "We were not given an opportunity to discuss this before tonight. Emergency meetings could have been called ... Because I actually have a full-time job and I cannot drop my responsibilities to my job when I am summoned in a cryptic message to go to city hall ... to go discuss whatever deal was made without our knowledge."

Wright also said the Board should have continued the strategic planning process it began five years ago, and then abruptly stopped.

Clarification: On Tuesday night, the Board took a majority vote to allow the school district to raise the school tax levy up to 10.1 percent as it prepares its 2025-'26 budget. A previously published headline was unclear and has been updated.

Watch the April 8 Middletown BOE meeting: