Tax-hike changes drastic due to tuition refiguring

Tax-hike changes drastic
due to tuition refiguring
Tuition conflict results
in savings for Helmetta with ’03-04 school tab
By brian donahue
Staff Writer

After a two-year period in which Helmetta’s school tax rate rose by $1.61, or 37 percent, it may actually come as a pleasant surprise for residents to learn that the rate is only expected to increase by 17.6 cents for the next school year.

However, the good news for Helmetta is not so good for Spotswood, where Helmetta sends all of its students on a paid tuition basis. At Helmetta’s request, the Middlesex County superintendent of schools looked at the way Spotswood calculates the costs of tuition and determined it was not in compliance with state statute.

As a result, Helmetta school officials said their district will pay Spotswood $360,000 less than initially anticipated for the 2003-04 school year.

The formula used by Spotswood was an improper modification of a formula that is permitted under state statute, according to Helmetta officials.

Spotswood School Business Administrator Derek Jess said the formula was based on a settlement agreement reached in 1998 by the two school districts, along with Milltown, which sends its high school students to Spotswood. He said state laws have changed since that time, and that it was not brought to the district’s attention until Helmetta raised the question just recently.

"It’s something that just happened within the law, and it’s one of those things in which we were doing something that we were asked to change, and we did," Jess said.

Spotswood, which had previously announced a $19.3 million budget carrying a tax increase of 14.5 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, will have to raise the increase to 25.5 cents, Jess said. He noted that much of the increase in the tax rate, which would be $4.14 under the proposed budget, is related to the building referendum approved by voters last year. On a home assessed at the borough average of $70,770, the tax increase would be $182.

Had Helmetta paid Spotswood based on the previous formula, Helmetta’s school tax rate would have risen by 80 cents.

"This is a huge savings to our budget," Helmetta School Business Administrator Brian Savage said Monday.

Helmetta Board of Education President Barbara Raczynski said Helmetta may seek an adjustment in order to be reimbursed if too much has been paid in previous years.

Despite the savings, Helmetta’s budget will still increase by 6 percent, bringing it to $3,449,720 for the 2003-04 school year, according to preliminary figures presented this week by Savage. It will bring the school tax rate to $4.50 per $100 of assessed valuation, meaning the owner of property assessed at $120,000 will pay $5,400 in school taxes — $211 more than the current year.

The budget is going up partly because the borough, which has no schools, anticipates sending 12 more students to Spotswood next year, bringing the total number of students to 275.

Another reason for the increased tax levy is that Helmetta owes Spotswood $191,000 in tuition for the 2000-01 school year, though Savage noted that officials were "looking at the possibility" of whether the figure is based on incorrect tuition rates.

Also, transportation costs for busing students will go up 4 percent, or by about $5,000, Savage said.

Despite the changed formula, tuition will still increase in some categories, but will decrease in others. The most notable difference is in the tuition amount for special education, which will go from $29,311 to $15,195 per student.

For regular education, the kindergarten rate will be $6,451, up $27, and the first- through fifth-grade rate will go up $122 to $8,240.

However, tuition will decrease from $9,805 to $7,991 for students in grades six through eight, and for high school students it will drop from $11,474 to $11,412.

Helmetta will receive a $32,697 increase in state aid for 2003-04, bringing that figure to $795,516.