Highlands region taxpayers forced to pick up the slack as state aid to schools dries up

State education aid cuts are putting property tax bills in New Jersey's development-restricted northern Highlands under pressure.

Local school tax increases proposed by several school boards in the region so far this spring have surpassed the state's mandated 2% cap. Officials said they are feeling the impact of aid cuts brought by a state formula that officials in Trenton said factors in declines in enrollment that had been previously overlooked.

Passaic County's Highlands districts — West Milford, Lakeland Regional, Ringwood, Wanaque and Bloomingdale — are all expected to lose state aid for 2023-24.

Ringwood's school board this month proposed a budget that would usher in a 2.71% tax levy increase to support the 2023-24 school budget. The district is losing nearly $148,000 in aid, records show. It is also expecting a roughly $1.8 million increase in operating expenses. More than $294,000 is attributed to transportation cost increases.

"We are hard up for drivers every day," said Paul Rubacky, the school board budget committee chair. "Consequently, we're outsourcing a lot of transportation, and that's expensive."

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Another $327,000 in maintenance and custodial costs for the four schools is expected due to a new contract for unionized employees, Rubacky said.

Ringwood officials have said the average homeowner with a roughly $302,500 property tax assessment should expect a $132 tax increase.

The numbers are elevated in neighboring West Milford. There, school officials have proposed a $235 tax increase for the average homeowner with a $242,700 assessment, ahead of an April 25 public hearing.

The budget calls for cutting more than a dozen teaching positions and roughly as many specialists, including an elementary school principal, as school board members previously agreed to close an elementary school at the end of June. School officials said the budget is nonetheless saddled by rising fuel, transportation and personnel costs.

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The more than 4.4% increase to the tax levy, like Ringwood's, exceeds the state's 2% cap due to loopholes in health benefits and other expenses. If approved, the budget would usher in the sixth consecutive tax increase for the district.

This is the sixth year in a seven-year run of declining state aid for Ringwood and West Milford as officials in Trenton phase in the S-2 funding formula. Since it began, West Milford has seen its state aid drop by more than $9 million. School officials said it has made their budgets exceedingly difficult to sustain.

For the 2023-24 school year, officials are expecting another $1.2 million decrease in aid. State aid supported more than 25% of the district's $65.7 million budget in the 2008-09 school year. For 2023-24 it is projected at less than $5.6 million, or about 7.5% of the total budget.

Since 2008-09, the district has seen its tax levy rise from $45.8 million to the $62.7 million proposed last Tuesday to support a $76.3 million budget. Enrollment, meanwhile, has dropped from 4,169 to about 3,000 students. District officials said they expect enrollment to level off at roughly 2,600 by the end of the decade.

West Milford was one of two districts in Passaic County to receive state stabilization aid in December 2022. State officials awarded $1.3 million after the school board's $2.8 million request to help address rising fuel and staffing costs.

Other North Jersey districts in Passaic, Morris and Sussex counties that received awards included Woodland Park ($101,569), Jefferson Township ($247,586), Andover Regional ($418,526) and Hopatcong ($120,027).

Legislation to restore some funding and provide a one-time payment to school districts that stand to lose aid from the state in 2024 passed in the Senate on Monday. It will go to the Assembly later in March and Murphy has said he will sign it.

The legislation calls for the restoration of $102.8 million in aid. The bill is sponsored by senators Vin Gopal and Andrew Zwicker, and Assemblyman Roy Freiman. The bill proposes the following be restored for the Highland region's districts: Jefferson Twp. would receive an additional $1 million; Andover Regional $48,494; Hopatcong $712,854; Ringwood Boro $97,495; Wanaque Boro $57,530; West Milford Twp. $788,110; Lakeland Regional $427,002; and Bloomingdale Boro $23,795.

Hopatcong school district records show its Board of Education could propose a 3.81% tax increase for 2023-24 later in March.

That district and Andover Regional are in the state legislative district represented by Sen. Steve Oroho and Assemblymen Parker Space and Hal Wirths. The Republican trio have railed against aid cuts triggered by S-2 and have proposed legislation that would use COVID-19 relief funds to help school districts that lost money in the 2022-23 school year.

More than half the school districts they represent are losing aid again in 2023-24, Oroho said. With statewide education spending set to increase by $1 billion in the coming fiscal year, Space said, state funding should be made available to assist communities at risk of huge property tax increases due to losses in aid.

"We need a better way to distribute this money, dare I say, in a more equitable way," Wirths added.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ school state aid: Highlands taxpayers to pay more as aid shrinks