Quote:

So - the entire 2% increase is to pay for medical benefits for school employees? Pretty obvious why the BOE can't afford classrooms for kids with a budget of well over .6 billion dollars.

And not one tax abated property will pay a penny!

Jersey City Board of Education passes $665 million 2014/2015 budget

By Michaelangelo Conte/The Jersey Journal
on March 25, 2014 at 8:41 PM

The Jersey City Board of Education passed a $665 million 2014/2015 budget tonight which will result in a 1.5 percent increase in the tax levy due to state funding remaining flat as costs rise, officials said.

The portion of the budget paid for by the city tax levy is about $110 million, while last year the levy was just over $109 million. The increase in the levy will mean an increase in local taxes of about $25 for the average homeowner, said Board Business Administrator Luiggi Campana during his presentation at tonight's public hearing.

???The significance of this budget is that it is flat funded and the state is not increasing its allocation while costs continue to go up,??? said Campana, adding that efforts to trim the budget were aimed at non-instructional areas. ???We are managing not to place any layoffs or considering a reduction in staffing except through attrition, such as retirements, and the money is going to the schools.???

Joel Torres, 30, PTA president at School 27 in the Heights, spoke at the hearing and had a different take on the budget.

???I think there are too much cut from support and instruction,??? said Torres, who has three children at School 27. ???Based on what I see by being involved at the schools, there have been cuts to schools and support.???

This year???s schools budget resulted in an increase of the tax levy of 1.8 percent, while the two previous years each saw 2 percent increases. The increase in the levy due to the current schools budget was $29 per average homeowner, and it was $33 each previous year.

The local tax levy pays 16.5 percent of the 2014/15 budget, 63 percent comes from the state funding, 14 percent from state and federal grants and the remainder from federal aid and other local revenue, Campana said.

The budget includes a more than $12 million increase to cover the rising cost of -+medical benefits for school system employees.

About 60 percent of the new budget will go to pay the instructional staff and teacher assistants and aides, with the next largest portion going to operations and maintenance, Campana said.

The board approved a preliminary budget on March 4 and it was then sent to the Hudson County Board of Education to be reviewed. The county board approved the budget without requesting changes. It covers the period of July 1 through June 30, 2015.

There were 28,400 full-time students in the Jersey City school system as of Oct. 15, 2013 and it is anticipated there will be 29,900 as of Oct. 14 of this year. Tonight???s meeting at School 11 off Journal Square was attended by about 10 people.

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... _budget.html#incart_river