DISTRICT 40 LOSES NEARLY $1 MILLION IN STATE MUNICIPAL AID UNDER CORZINE’S PLAN

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Homeowners Hit With Double Whammy On

 School & Municipal Aid That Will Increase Taxes

 WAYNE NJ --  Gov. Jon Corzine’s proposed budget is a huge financial blow to the struggling middle class homeowners in District 40, which will lose nearly  $1 million in state aid this year , say Republican General Assembly candidates Anthony Rottino and Joseph Caruso.

As a whole the district will  lose more than  $933,000 in municipal aid, with Mahwah leading the way with a $231,192 loss in state aid followed by Wayne with $144,512 decline.  Ridgewood and Franklin Lakes, which will each lose more than $101,000 in aid.  

When it comes to school aid, the district didn’t do much better.  Of the 12 municipalities in the district all but one, Verona will receive no increase in school aid for the 2009-10 school year. And Verona’s increase is minuscule  --  just $12,764 – bringing its total school aid to $1.44 million or just $691 per pupil in state aid. Wayne with a total of  $6.7 million in state education aid  gets just $790 per  pupil and Wyckoff with $1.45 million in state school aid receives just $643 per pupil. These  numbers, say Rottino and  Caruso, are woeful compared to the amount of state aid given to many urban districts.  

 “Gov. Corzine is waging war against the suburban middle  class.  He knows it and he doesn’t care. That’s why we must have a Republican  governor and a fighting Republican legislature  in November,” said Rottino, a business owner.   “The incumbent assemblymen in District 40  are just not getting the job done for the families in the district,” added Rottino a father of four. 

LESS AID. HIGHER TAXES. 

“Losing nearly over $9330,000 in municipal aid will mean cuts in services for some municipalities or increased property taxes,” said Caruso,  a business executive. “Gov. Corzine is determined to increase the pain level on suburban taxpayers while protecting his political base in urban areas. 

DISPROPORTIONATE SCHOOL AID  

 Rottino noted that the state aid provided to the district amounts to just $1,035  per pupil  per  municipality.  When aid to the  two regional high schools in District 40 are factored in, the per pupil aid figure rises slightly to  $1,341. But he says those figures are  paltry compared to urban areas, which get more than 80 percent of their school funding from suburban homeowners. 

Paterson, received $436 million  in school aid last year and that translates to  $16,018 per pupil,  Passaic, which will get $9.4 million increase in state aid for 2009-10 receives $15,511 per pupil while Newark receives more than $720 million in aid, or  $15,929 in per pupil.  

But the winner in Corzine’s urban aid giveaway, said Rottino,  is Camden which will get $282 million in state aid in Corzine’s new  budget aid, which amounts to an astounding  $19,017 per pupil.  

 “These aid numbers for urban areas are, in fact, obscene,” said Rottino, a former Wayne resident now living in Franklin Lakes. “What I find even more ludicrous than these aid figures is that our Republican legislators in Trenton aren’t  mobilizing people to fight the governor and march on Trenton.  If I were in the legislature, that’s what I would be doing.”

RUMANA’S INEFFECTIVENESS

Caruso said the  lack of  response one from Assemblyman Scott Rumana – who is a member of the education committee -- regarding the double whammy of zero increase in school aid and a loss of municipal aid to the District 40 towns is a demonstration of Rumana’s inability to be an effective voice in Trenton for the district.  “The bad news for the District 40 taxpayers is not just Corzine’s budget  -- but   that Scott Rumana is too busy trying to save his chairmanship of the Passaic County Republican Party to pay attention what is going on in Trenton,” said Caruso.

 The following communities comprise District 40: Cedar Grove Township, Franklin Lakes Borough, Little Falls Township, Mahwah Township, Midland Park Borough, Oakland Borough, Ridgewood, Ringwood Borough, Verona Township, Wanaque Borough, Wayne Township, Wyckoff Township