Property tax statements that recently arrived in Ramsey mailboxes show one of the lowest school tax increases in recent years. The district’s operating budget includes a 1.66% increase – which is below the state-mandated 2% cap. The district’s budget makes up only a portion of the tax bill.
Some costs went up much more than that percentage, but we found ways to reduce other expenses to tame the overall increase. We are constantly looking for ways to trim costs that are in our control, so that we can continually improve even when some costs are not in our control.
Board of Education members have fielded some questions from residents about the school district’s per-pupil spending. That is a term from the state Department of Education’s calculations, based on data it collects a few days each year when districts report what funds are held in various accounts. Using it to summarize a district’s spending is like looking at your IRA after a big stock market jump and, based on those numbers, suddenly declaring your to retire.
The state also collects audited costs after a school district’s fiscal year ends. Those are labeled “actual costs,” and they vary significantly from the mid-year snapshots. Historically, the trend for Ramsey School District can be seen in these actual costs – modest increases in per-pupil costs that are attributable to health benefits, salaries, busing, utilities and special education. One reason for recent budget increases in the area of per-pupil spending is the expansion to All-Day Kindergarten, and another is key changes we made at Smith Middle School.
The 2020-21 audited budget numbers will show the district’s true operating costs, along with per-pupil spending that makes up a smaller group of spending accounts. Those will be submitted to the state after the independent audit is completed by the December 2021 deadline. They will be posted with the 2022-2023 advertised budget.
Even without knowing all the details, this is important to note: New Jersey law prevents public school districts from increasing their operating budgets more than 2% a year (except for specific state-authorized waivers for high expenses, or when local voters agree to increase the budget). Ramsey voters strongly supported a budget increase for the expansion to All-Day Kindergarten. It costs the district more to do that, but we did so with voter approval of nearly 2-to-1. To learn more about changes at Smith, look at this Ramsey Review for “Smith Strengthens Team Approach, Bolsters Other Supports.”
The arrival of annual property tax bills is a good time to remind Ramsey residents that the school district is on track to finish payments on a bond that led to the construction of Dater School. For a home assessed at Ramsey’s average, that payoff in 2024 is estimated to result in a tax drop of about $255/year.
