With the decreasing values everyone should be filing for a tax appeal. Do we just keep raising the rate? That is a temporary fix and sooner rather than later people will start to leave this town. Perhaps we should join forces with North Brunswick and look into an across the board tax reassessment. It would get the pain over with all at once, you would know exactly where the revenue stream stands and can make a solid determination on any increases necessary. North Brunswick is taking some of the burden away from home owners and shifting it to area businesses. But this playing catch up that occurs every time there is an election is painful and annoying. Time to be proactive rather than reactive.

Front page of the Star Leder on Sunday: Edison not asking taxpayers for any additional funding this year. Every year South Brunswick has asked for more. This 5.5 cent increase and then the municipal tax increase. How about generating some income by enforcing some of the traffic laws in place? I walk around the corner and observe constant violations. I've yet to see an officer around handing out tickets in the area despite complaints I've made. In the meantime they tell you they've lost revenue in that area too. My experience is that it's not because people are obeying the posted signs. They're just not out there handing out tickets. Then did you know that we have our own health department? Only 4 townships in Middlesex County have their own. Middlesex County could do it much cheaper but that would be allowing others inside this little silo our local government has created and expects us to continue funding. We also have our own full time legal staff. Lots of waste in this town and areas where shared services would not cause any pain at all. Time to get some new blood in there to use the millions of dollars we already pay more wisely.

Let's see the ratables are dropping, (when less companies stay and/or zoning changes from "OR" to "Residential” and everyone has their homes reassessed ), the Governor will not provide State aid which is due to every district in the State(See http://southbrunswick.patch.com/articles/save-our-schools-rallies-against-underfunding-of-public-education), teacher to student ratio increasing, school programs being cut, parents being asked to pay for programs, field trips, etc., and charter schools pulling from the school budget.
The Governor wants to give EVERYONE a 10% tax cut, which will save my family oh, I guess $10 a month, but those individuals pulling in $1 million a year, will get, well, you do the math! Residents want to cut more school staff – there is an intelligent answer – let the kids deal with it, so in the future they WON”T be able to do the math! If you think education is expensive, try ignorance!

What's also interesting is we go from 0 cuts to 38.5 people. Isn't there anything in between?

Eleanor you have a point with the Health Department the service is offered by the county. You have no point with traffic enforcement the amount of revenue you are talking about tickets could not put a dent in. If the average ticket was $200 and they issued 10K tickets you would get to $2M. That is not even half of the ratable drop and by the way to issue those tickets you will be paying an officer and if you get have to issue 10K you will either be paying ot or hiring new officers. If the police department issued that many tickets we would all be riding bikes.. Finally, the budget as described provides the outside parameters that is how people who understand budgets present them. From there it is decision making that is why there is a public hearing so you can come and have your concerns addressed. With the new law the Board could have asked for a 2% increase above the current years expenses the question is how much did they ask for? Also had they asked for the 2% increase how much would the tax increase have been? I think those figures are important to the discussion.

The SB BOE is guilty of gross incompetence and/or gross mismanagement. In the hardest economic times in recent history they want to torture tax payers struggling to pay their bills and take care of their families. Enough of the nonsense of blaming the state etc...etc...live within our means. If it means sacrifice and layoffs so be it!

Oh please..the union talking points posters and teachers special interest dupes are already spewing their lies and misinformation.....

Eleanor you may have a point about the safety in the area where you are walking but it is unreasonable to expect an increase in traffic fines to result in millions of dollars. one of the big savings in Edison is that they are expanding their program for students with special needs and they will have fewer out of district placements. SB did this years ago and the taxpayer has benefited from savings related to this each year since. In addition, SB saved over $1m from a bond refinance. It is not like the BOE did nothing to offset the decrease in the tax levy. If you just took the decrease and added to it the 2% increase allowed the increase would be more than 10 cents. We all wish it were zero but the increases in expenses are not zero. Health insurance premiums increase, the out of district placement cost increase, cost of textbooks increase etc.

I Am Right.....your post was so coherent and rational.......NOT!

Elanor excellent point about health care contributions. I believe it is something you should ask at the budget meeting. From what I know each district is different with the phase in of these requirements depending on when their contracts end. In addition that savings is important but will not completly end health care increases. If your employee is required to cover 30 percent of their health care costs and the increase in health cate is 10 percent. The district is still absorbing a 10 percent increase on 70 percent of the cost of the increase. You are making relevant points the question is how many of them have the BOE considered. Go to the budget meeting ask your questions and get answers.

Eleanor the health department and legal department have nothing to do with the BOE nor does increased revenue from fines those items effect thetownship budget. Those questions are for town council at their meetings.

Every business and emergency organization in the state is forced to do more with less except it seems the schools. By schools I mean teachers and administrators. They still feel they are due large pay raises even if it means that the tax payers in the town have to go on a baloney sandwich diet to try to keep their homes. We're all feeling a squeeze from a bad economy but the teachers union seems to think the rest of the citizens should take a bigger hit to keep them afloat. I'd love to see our teachers be the highest paid in the country but not at the expense of having my bolagna sandwichs without the bolagna.

Doing more with less, that is exactly what has been going on with the schools. Teachers ARE paying more toward their pensions and health care, some of that even started under Corzine. Read what LMR posted above. Our beloved governator has made massive grievous cuts to education while proposing a 10% tax cut mainly benefiting the rich. Geez, does anyone pay attention to facts. People are falling for all the Christie bombast. How about the millionaires' tax? Oh sorrry, we must be nice and gentle to the millionaires and billionaires in NJ, shared sacrifice only applies to teachers, police and firefighters.

Vote is surprising. Never would have guessed 3:1 in favor of raising taxes. Can this be right?

Seems it would be helpful if people stayed with the facts. The facts are that we have a wonderful school district. The fact is that we have more children every year taking AP classes, which saves families when there children are headed towards college. The fact is that our teachers have never been the highest paid teachers in the state or even the county, in fact is one of the lowest paid staff in the area. The fact is our district consistently highlighted for excellence. The fact is also... excellence costs money.