Four local school districts will lose millions of dollars in state funding after Gov. Phil Murphy reduced his proposed school aid by about $335 million statewide.
Union City, Bayonne, West New York and Kearny will all lose at least about $3 million, with both Union City and Bayonne losing a little under $5 million they had already locked into their budgets.
The state aid cuts are the result of decreased state revenue during the coronavirus pandemic — a hit for districts already grappling with how the coronavirus will affect their finances.
If approved by the state legislature, the funding decrease reverses the approximately 3.7% increase in aid that Murphy proposed in February. Now, the 375 districts that are losing funding will enter their new budgets they passed earlier this month at an anticipated deficit.
“I know I can speak for some of the trustees who are hoping that it doesn’t put us back to where we were two years ago or three years ago where we laid off a couple hundred people,” said Bayonne Board of Education Trustee Denis Wilbeck.
Union City and Bayonne are losing $4.98 million and $4.89 million, respectively. West New York is losing about $3.5 million and Kearny is losing about $3 million.
The cuts will hit Bayonne and Kearny harder than Union City and West New York, which receive more state funding, thus their percentage decrease will be less.
Union City, for example, is still set to still receive about $197.5 million while Kearny will receive just $43 million.
North Bergen, Guttenberg, Secaucus, East Newark and the Hudson County Vocational school districts will all see a less than $1 million loss in anticipated aid. The remaining districts in the county are unaffected by Murphy’s decision.
Secaucus’ cut from $2.2 million to $1.96 million amounts to a more than 10% decrease.
Bayonne passed its $164.3 million budget in a 5-4 vote a month ago. Wilbeck was among the no votes – he didn’t want taxpayers left with a 1% property tax increase during a pandemic, he said.
The district has a hiring freeze in place for administrative positions but is continuing to advertise for other new hires, Wilbeck said.
“It’s going to be a mystery as to how we cope best with the budget cut,” he said. “We had indicated at the last meeting we had in April…it was not an opportune time to post jobs, to look for increases in the budget because of the uncertainty.”
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May 30, 2020 at 04:42AM
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Four Hudson school districts to lose millions in budgeted state aid - nj.com
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