>Like it or not, in our Village the school and budgets are separate from the Municipal one. Different groups of people work out each of them (in theory anyway). The only check-and-balance in the process is after the voters disapprove.
The school budget is clearly the target if we want to get the total tax bill down. One of the things that frustrated me the most this year was a coffee I attended with the BOE members. I really did not get the feeling that they were as interested as the spectators were in taking on the Union and being aggressive in there approach to cost savings. According to the people who spoke, they have already outsourced what can be outsourced, cut operational costs where they can, etc, etc. So the next cuts really will have to be in places that were not done before. Dr. Fishbein actually said that voting down the budget would not send a message to anyone. I wonder what the message will be next year when there is again no State aid, and again a 4.5% raise for the teachers.
I really think it is a unique point in time in New Jersey and municipalities who step up and push back on the Unions will get support from the State and be able to get somewhere. One Superintendent will be first – why not ours? I am a big believer in merit pay, tenure only for people that deserve it, and benefits reform. It has to happen or nobody will be able to afford living here.
As for the open space issues, I think I am going to drift away from the crowd on this one. I don’t think they should be sold. Open space is a finite thing. Once it’s gone you never get it back. Maybe we don’t have a good use for those properties now but we will in the future, it would be a shame to see them cut up into townhouses. That being said…we should find SOMETHING to do with them.
Oliver Train
oliver.train@gettheretech.com
