BY JOE MALINCONICO
PATERSON PRESS
Paterson school board members reacted with shock and outrage Wednesday night when district officials presented them with a preliminary 2016-17 budget that would increase property taxes by 27.2 percent to support the school district.
After more than 10 years without an increase, the tax levy for the district would jump from $38.9 million to $49.5 million for the school year beginning on July 1, according to budget documents made public Wednesday night.
That proposal comes at a time when Paterson property owners also face a 6.1-percent increase in municipal taxes, a hike that precipitated a partial shutdown of city government this week.
“We just can’t afford to increase taxes at this time,” said board member Nakima Redmon.
School board members asserted that they were blindsided by the proposed increase and vowed to remove it from the budget. But they delayed taking a vote to do that until the district administration provides them with more information on what spending cuts would be made to offset the elimination of the $10.6-million tax increase.
“Why is it you always seem to run out of money?” parent Rainbow Williams asked district officials during Wednesday night’s meeting. “Last year, you were $50 million in the hole. This year it’s $45 million … It seems somebody needs to learn how to do math.”
Eighth-grader Fabliha Zaman bemoaned the impact that last year’s budget cuts had on instruction in city schools, saying she missed terminated teachers who helped her learn. ”It doesn’t make sense to me,” said Zaman who attends School 7. “We all don’t deserve this.”
https://www.northjersey.com/news/paterson-stunned-by-proposal-for-27-school-tax-hike-1.1521121
Guess all those $100K annual public pensions for the retired architects of Paterson’s failed public school system are more important than actually spending on an improved educational system
I knew it was just a matter of time before you chimed in with that public pensions bullshit. You say nothing about the political incompetence and the freebee social programs. Your a broken record. If James post another Global Warming
story you will blame the pension system. What hack.
Unsustainable public pensions are the number one cause of the many local and State financial deficits.
How much of our taxes are dumped into that black hole?
Your just a broken record saying the same thing any time you get the chance. I bet you have small hands and you know what they say about men with small hands.
3:31 pm is cop wannabe who couldn’t pass the entrance exam so now he comes here to bitch and moan about the pay and benefits he didn’t qualify for. Pure jealousy nothing more.
With small hands 8:19. Thats why he so frustrated
3:31 forgot the damn union thug comment…1 trick pony
Of course your correct Paul Smith, I stand corrected. Thanks!
Union thugs fiddling while Paterson burns, and the hacks posting above are trying to start a knife fight…
You know what happens when the gene pool the police depts draw from dwindles to the same families thanks to legacy hires… You get mouth breathers like 8:19 and 8:45 posting police union garbage on a thread about Paterson’s school taxes
Over a million dollars a year just on BoE pensions in Paterson and $3.5mn a year on public safety pensions in Paterson… Seems excessive and unsustainable