9.9% School Tax Rise Possible If NJ Gives Toms River District $12.4M In Aid

TOMS RIVER, NJ — The property tax levy in the Toms River Regional School District could rise 9.9 percent if the state Department of Education provides an additional $12.4 million in aid to the district.

That was the proposal in a resolution approved by the Toms River Regional Board of Education at its June 18 meeting as the district holds out hope of avoiding deep cuts to the 2024-25 school budget.

Toms River Superintendent Michael Citta said the district is still talking with legislators and Gov. Phil Murphy's office in hopes of getting people to understand the predicament the district is facing, namely the inability to provide a thorough-and-efficient education to the students in Toms River, Beachwood, Pine Beach and South Toms River, as required under New Jersey's Constitution.

Toms River Regional was faced with a $26.5 million budget gap for the 2024-25 school year until the passage in mid-May of Assembly bill 4161, which provided additional aid to several districts while also granting them permission to exceed the 2 percent cap on tax levy increases, which has been in place since 2010.

But Citta has said the ability to raise the tax levy by nearly 10 percent does not solve the district's problem, as it would only cut the deficit in half.

The district submitted its $291 million tentative budget in March, hoping at the time for an advance on state aid to fill the gap. State officials told districts across the state — including neighboring Jackson Township — that it would not provide aid advances to any district in 2024-25.

The Lakewood Township Schools have relied on those aid advances, usually referred to as loans, to make their budgets work, but this was the first time Toms River had planned to ask for help.

Toms River Regional officials have been working with state legislators ever since, trying to express the dire circumstances facing the district. A cut of $26.5 million would mean the loss of 368 staff positions, and class sizes at the elementary school level that would exceed 250 students, cuts Citta said he would refuse to sign off on. Read more: 368 Job Cuts, 'Ridiculous' Class Sizes In Toms River: What Slashing $26.5M Would Mean

The district has more than 14,500 students and 1,300 staff members.

Murphy has suggested districts seeing deep aid cuts should close schools — a reflection of the claims years ago that districts were receiving aid for students who were no longer in their districts. But Toms River Regional's buildings cannot accommodate closing a high school or middle school, and the elementary schools would face a mass redistricting that would create costs for transporting children. Read more: Just Close Schools, Murphy Says To Toms River, Districts With Aid Cuts

The resolution passed by the board in a 6-3 vote, with Ashley Lamb, Melissa Morrison and Paola Pascarella voting no, and Kathy Eagan, Joseph Nardini, Jennifer Howe, Joseph Capone, Kevin Kidney and Anna Polozzo voting yes. Polozzo said her yes vote was solely on the resolution, but that she will vote no on the tax levy increase if the state does not provide the additional $12.4 million.

In the resolution, the district notes it has lost a cumulative total of more than $137 million in state aid — a tally that arises because a $5 million cut one year means the next year, when $7 million more is cut, it's a loss of $12 million from the original starting point.

The district also is more than $91.5 million under adequacy, which is the amount defined by the state Department of Education as the minimum amount a district should be spending per student to educate them. Toms River Regional spends the least per student of any district with more than 3,500 students in New Jersey.

"Adequacy looks like a reasonably sized classroom with plenty of supplies and sports and co-curriculars with uniforms and paid coaches and advisers, and teachers who aren't serving twice as many students as they should," Polozzo said. "It doesn't look like 40 desks in a classroom and it doesn't look like a person doing the job of three."

"This is a Band-Aid when we need a tourniquet," Lamb said, quoting a state legislator who said that to her. "If the state can change the cap they can change the formula," referring to the formula the state education department says it uses in computing how much aid it will provide to a district and how much the district should be kicking in through property taxes, known as its local fair share. Toms River and a few other districts filed an Open Public Records Act lawsuit to obtain the formula in 2018, and the state has not fully complied, claiming it turned over the information it has to make the formula operate.

"The state preaches equity but we don't have equity," she said.

Morrison said the state's refusal to provide the necessary information to make the formula operational was why she voted no.

The 9.9 percent tax levy increase would raise $12,880,552, with Toms River residents paying an additional $325 per year for a house assessed at the township's median assessment. For South Toms River, it's $134 more per year, for Beachwood $270 per year and in Pine Beach, residents would see a $307 increase, all based on the towns' median assessments, business administrator William Doering said.

That would leave the district with a $12,358,759 shortfall — which they are hopeful the state will pick up.

Polozzo said she has been told by staff in the state education department that "Toms River Township's tax levy was too low and they were unable to help us until we raise taxes."

"Doing this will indicate we are being cooperative with the state," she said.

"There is absolutely no way we can increase taxes this much and still not be able to retain the level of staffing we have now that is already woefully inadequate," Polozzo said. "Our children are not getting a thorough-and-efficient education. I refuse to pretend this will provide them with one."

"The only way we can raise taxes is through the budget process, and the only way to have a budget process is if we have a balanced budget," Citta said.

Under changes made in May, the district has until five days after a state budget is signed to submit a temporary budget, and about 21 calendar days to finalize it.