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 Who is Pass the Budget Committee?
How can voters be asked to support a budget without providing a copy for review?
A flyer (Click Here) calling for the passage of the 2007-08 school budget has been circulated by a group calling themselves "Pass the budget committee" but failed to include any of the budget's expenditures or revenue.
The flyer shows an Albert Street address and was not signed by any particular individual. The committee seems to be a new organization since the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission had no record of the group in question.
According to sources the letter has been sent to parents with children in the public schools while others received the flyer while picking up children at one of the borough's five public schools.
"How can you blindly ask someone to support a budget without providing any facts, figures or information detailing the document? Does the budget raise taxes? Has the school budget been introduced? Does anyone even have a copy of the school budget?" asked one taxpayer upon reading a copy of the campaign flyer.
The letter or flyer can be seen as an effort by school officials to ensure that the school budget passes given the fact Mayor Massa has asked school officials to offer voters an austere budget in wake of the EnCap lawsuit and the revenue deficit the borough inherited from the previous administration.
In his address to residents, Massa detailed the spending habits of the Board of Education as having doubled in the last ten years in the face of declining enrollment and decreasing test scores. Massa, a former school board president is pleading with all segments of the community to tighten spending and make an effort to control taxes and spending.
"The Board of Education has a responsibility to present a frugal spending plan in wake of this budget crisis. It seems to me this letter indicates they have no intention of doing so," offered one municipal official.
"School spending represents nearly 60% of all property taxes. Yet most taxpayers do not have children in the system and do not see a tangible benefit of the schools when student population is declining while spending continues to increase. What makes things worse is that test scores are declining and we're behind even some Hudson County school districts on these tests," said a former school trustee who asked not to be identified.
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