REPUBLICANS TO PROPOSE THREE AMENDMENTS TO SCHOOL FUNDING BILL AT HEARING TOMORROW

LANCE, DeCROCE AND KEAN SEND LETTER TO COMMITTEE MEMBERS URGING CAREFUL CONSIDERATION OF BILL 

Senate Republican Leader Leonard Lance, Assembly Republican Leader Alex DeCroce, and Senate Republican Leader-elect Thomas H. Kean Jr., today sent a letter to all members of the Senate and Assembly budget committees announcing three proposed amendments to Governor Corzine’s proposed school funding formula and urging members to give the proposal careful consideration.

“We remain very concerned that there has not been ample time for the public and members of the Legislature to study and propose changes to this bill,” Lance, DeCroce and Kean write in the letter. “While we would prefer that this bill not be rushed through during the ‘lame duck’ session, we must take this opportunity to try to make improvements to the bill.  At tomorrow’s budget committee hearing, Republican legislators will propose three amendments to the legislation.”

The three amendments are as follows:

·        An amendment making the additional school funding effective upon structural spending cuts being made elsewhere in the budget without tax increases or the monetization gimmick.

·        An amendment that caps all Abbotts and “rim districts” to increases of no more than approximately 3.5 percent on the grounds that they have been receiving large increases for the past six years and what they received last year met court challenges and was adequate.  These changes would result in a spending neutral impact.  It should be noted that all districts under 3.5% would be lifted up with the proposal including Newark and other Abbotts, so they can receive an increase adequate to cover inflation.  

·        An amendment to eliminate changes to special education funding.  Those changes have tremendous impacts on how schools will treat disabled kids and more time is especially needed for that part of this proposal with its very real impact on how services are delivered.

The letter points out that the new school funding formula fails to treat all districts fairly and cites as an example Union City which is slated for a $20 million, 16% aid increase. This is disproportionate even to other Abbott districts.

Lance, DeCroce and Kean said that the proposal should not be rushed through in the lame duck session, but that if it is, the proposed Republican amendments are necessary to salvage what is currently a flawed proposal.

A copy of the letter is attached.

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 January 2, 2008 

Members

Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee

Assembly Budget Committee

State House

Trenton, New Jersey 08625

 Dear Colleagues: 

As you are aware, Governor Corzine has unveiled a proposed overhaul of our school funding formula and is asking the Legislature to act on this new proposal by the close of the current legislative session next Tuesday.  This funding formula now takes the form of a 106-page bill that was first made public last week during the Christmas holidays. We remain very concerned that there has not been ample time for the public and members of the Legislature to study and propose changes to this bill.

We are writing to provide you with some information with respect to Governor Corzine’s $1.5 billion school spending proposal and to encourage you to take great care in considering whether it is in the best interest of your districts.  We should all applaud the Governor’s attempt finally to reverse a trend whereby the needs of many suburban and rural school districts were ignored while money was poured into the Abbott school districts with little or no fiscal accountability.  However, his proposal raises several concerns that we should all consider in the days ahead.

First, the governor has not indicated how his proposal will be funded.  Governor Corzine may pay for this additional $532 million in spending by hiking our constituents’ taxes or by hiking tolls through monetization.  We should all stand united and aggressively push for spending cuts as the responsible way to pay for this proposal.  Last year Republicans proposed $1.5 billion in possible spending cuts, and we are prepared to work in a bipartisan effort to reduce wasteful or unnecessary government spending.

Second, instead of restoring much-needed equity to the school funding process, this proposal continues to treat many school districts and their taxpayers unfairly.  While some communities will receive solid funding increases, many more districts are being left with an insufficient funding increase of 2% that will not cover contractual salary increases or the rising cost of health care and utilities.  Other school districts’ percentage aid increases appear meaningful, but a closer inspection shows the actual impact for schools and taxpayers will be all but meaningless.  We should all stand united and fight to ensure that none of our communities continue to be left behind.

Third, many school districts are receiving grossly inappropriate aid increases.  One example is Union City.  Union City is an Abbott school district and it is slated for a 16% increase in funding.  In the past year, examples of waste and patronage have been uncovered in this school district.  Just as we have fought to prevent our taxpayers from paying for wasteful spending in the State budget, we need to stand together and fight to prevent our taxpayers from paying for wasteful spending like this extraordinary increase for Union City. 

Finally, this bill was unveiled during the holiday break between Christmas and the New Year and many taxpayers are likely not aware that this issue is even being debated. Concerned parent groups, taxpayer organizations and educators have not had sufficient opportunity to vet the proposal and present their concerns.  A complicated formula drives this proposal and its ultimate impact on your community beyond the first year is not fully understood.  We need to stand united and fight to ensure that this proposal is given a thorough and careful vetting.

While we would prefer that this bill not be rushed through during the “lame duck” session, we must take this opportunity to try to make improvements to the bill.  At tomorrow’s budget committee hearing, Republican legislators will propose three amendments to the legislation.

First, an amendment will be offered making the additional school funding effective upon structural spending cuts being made elsewhere in the budget without tax increases or monetization.

Second, an amendment will be offered that caps all Abbott and Rim Districts to increases of no more than approximately 3.5% on the grounds that they have been receiving large increases for the past six years and what they received last year met court challenges and was adequate.  Places like Union City hardly need a 16% increase in aid after benefiting from 6 years of aid increases.  The money saved by this cap would be used to lift every school district up to an increase of at least 3.5%.  These two changes would result in a spending neutral impact.  It should be noted that all districts under 3.5% would be lifted up with the proposal including Newark and other Abbotts, so they can receive an increase adequate to cover inflation.

Third, an amendment will be offered to eliminate changes to special education funding.  Those changes have a tremendous impact on how schools will treat disabled children.  More time is especially needed for that part of this proposal with its very real impact on how services are delivered.  While jamming the whole bill through so quickly is problematic, this particular piece will have real life impacts for some of the most disabled students and their families.

In conclusion, we encourage you to consider this proposal carefully, and our proposed amendments to the bill, and do what is in the best interest of your constituents. Thank you for your consideration of this matter.

Sincerely,

Leonard Lance 

Senate Republican Leader

Alex DeCroce

Assembly Republican Leader

Thomas H. Kean Jr.

Senator