School budget vote charade
Red Bank and Lacey have provided two more examples of why most people don't bother voting in school elections. Voters in both towns rejected their school budgets last month. When budgets are defeated, they are sent to the township committee or council for cuts.
In Red Bank, the council cut $35,000 from a $15.48 million budget - about 2/10 of 1 percent. The Lacey committee cut $200,000 from a $35.1 million budget - about half of 1 percent. The whole process is a farce.
School budgets should be subject to strict, but fair, spending caps and subject to line-item vetoes by county superintendents. Employee contracts should be negotiated at the county level with allowable salary increases and employee benefits capped by the state. That would eliminate the need for the annual budget vote charade.
In Red Bank, the council cut $35,000 from a $15.48 million budget - about 2/10 of 1 percent. The Lacey committee cut $200,000 from a $35.1 million budget - about half of 1 percent. The whole process is a farce.
School budgets should be subject to strict, but fair, spending caps and subject to line-item vetoes by county superintendents. Employee contracts should be negotiated at the county level with allowable salary increases and employee benefits capped by the state. That would eliminate the need for the annual budget vote charade.
posted by Randy Bergmann at 11:38 AM
1 Comments:
do you get the feeling that this is on our elected officals minds ....We just can't trust the New Jersey people to make those types of choices.... Government has to make those choices for people.....
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