BSE Vote on School Tax Levy Not Assured

As the South Orange-Maplewood School District looks to raise more than $100 million in taxes to support the 2012-2013 school budget by the Board of Education , it is uncertain whether or not the Board of School Estimate will vote to approve the tax levy this evening.

The South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education approved a 2012-2013 school budget of $114.9 million on March 12. The Board of School Estimate will vote on the proposed $101,959,453 tax levy to support the budget at a public meeting on March 28.

Members of the BSE — which has the power to vote the levy up or down — indicated that the votes may not be there at a meeting on March 14 because, although the Board of Education approved a budget within the 2% cap mandated by state law, the district's debt service will increase more than 2%. The district considered its debt service outside of the budget cap, as per the law.

However, members of the BSE said that they had indicated to the district in previous meetings that they wanted to see the district hew to a 2% cap "all in," in deference to the stresses being felt by local taxpayers. Representatives of the district, conversely, felt that they had been clear with the BSE that the debt service was being considered outside of the tax levy cap.

If the BSE does not approve the proposed tax levy, it must approve a tax levy with recommendations on items to be deducted from the budget.

The Board of Education would then be required to revise the budget to be in line with the tax levy approved by the BSE. The Board of Education may decide to make different cuts than those recommended by the Board of School Estimate.

The Board of School Estimate is made up of eight members — three each from Maplewood and South Orange and two from the Board of Education. The budget needs at least four affirmative votes from the six municipal representatives. It does not matter what combination of four from the two towns.

The South Orange representatives on the BSE are Board of Trustee members Village President Alex Torpey, Michael Goldberg and Nancy Gould, with Howard Levison as an alternate. The Maplewood BSE representatives are Mayor Vic DeLuca, Deputy Mayor Kathy Leventhal and Committeeman Marlon K. Brownlee with Jerry Ryan as alternate.