Dear Ridgewood Neighbor,
You will lose your right to vote on every school budget unless you VOTE NO on the November Municipal Ballot Question on page 3 of your general election ballot. The question asks if we should move our local spring elections to November.
There is no annual school budget vote in November.
By law, if we lose this important voting right, we cannot attempt the process to get it back for at least 4 years, possibly more.
Our $100 million+ school budget represents 2/3 of your property tax bill.
This year, a defeated budget allowed the Village Council and Board of Education the opportunity to eliminate $630,000 in redundant spending.
Ridgewood local election statistics demonstrate that our local election turnout has averaged higher in the spring than when Board of Education elections were held in November from 2014 -2018.
Local election data also demonstrates that competition for open local elected positions is 60% higher in the spring than in November. If we lose the school budget vote and there is no competition for elected positions, our votes have no influence on the outcome of the election.
For parents who do not want their children in school on election days, school closings for professional development days or remote learning days are viable options.
To learn more, visit KeepOurVote.com
We welcome your questions at KeepOurVote@gmail.com
You will lose your right to vote on every school budget unless you vote “NO”!
Please share this important information with your local friends and neighbors. Every NO vote is crucial to preserving your local voting rights.
Your neighbors in support of Keep Our Vote,
Laurie Weber, Lana Kisilevich, Trish and Marv Benzing, Natallia Pratasevich, Anne & Boyd Loving, Linda Tarzian, Dana Glazer, Ellie Gruber, Aditya Singh, Patricia Pechko, Lauren Riker, Kiira Benzing, Jeanette Skrzek LaRocco, Piero Gabucci, and Sandy Graham Bartlett (Additional Keep Our Vote supporters are listed on our website.)
JUST VOTE NO!
Five “NO” votes from my household already submitted!
Vote NO ! ! ! !
Those morons want us to give up our right to vote
Vote NO
Just voted YES!
V.O.T.E.N.O.
– More participation in Spring
– Non Partisan on Spring
– Budget VOTE in Spring
Vote YES! Upset the loud toxic minority of residents.
Connect the dots – developer – High Density – Vision 2020 – Siobhan – Elections Loser and OVOV campaign, another council majority for them and Ridgewood will be unrecognizable! VOTE NO
My wife and I just voted. My wife voted Yes: she thinks a 2% increase per annum in the budget is reasonable and that we don’t need to micromanage the Board’s decisions if it’s within that amount. We also discussed how other school districts (including Tenafly, Princeton and Montclair, which also have strong school systems) do not vote on budgets.
I voted No: I’m unlikely to vote against a reasonable increase in the annual budget (and 2% – which is roughly in line with inflation – does not seem unreasonable to me – especially since our current spend per student is in line with or slightly less than our peer school districts). However, I think there’s a real value in keeping our right to vote, since it encourages citizens to take an interest in this and other local issues, and the cost of the additional elections seems like a small price to pay for a more engaged citizenry.
You did the right thing and I respect your wife’s decision but she needs to understand that there is no 2% limitation in reality, all exceptions can lead to tax levy of 4%-5% and still within the 2% criteria
3 NO votes from my family.
How can ANY rational person think that voting YES would be an even marginally good thing?
Sounds like a scam. Whose idea was that?
VOTE NO