School districts seeking advice on how to spend tax dollars got a dense lesson from the state on Wednesday.
The Education Department released a 205-page rulebook on how districts must craft their budgets, hire and fire top administrators, and handle shared-service agreements with neighboring towns. The reforms are required under new laws aimed at reducing New Jersey's property taxes, the highest in the nation.
"Taxpayers have been extremely generous," Education Commissioner Lucille Davy said in Trenton. "Given our economic challenges ... it is important that we focus on the efficient use of the resources that are available."
Among other provisions, the rules allow executive county superintendents to issue line-item vetoes on local budgets and order thorough audits of districts they think spend too much. In Bergen County, that authority is given to longtime Superintendent Aaron Graham. Passaic County does not yet have a county superintendent. The job is temporarily held by Robert Gilmartin, the former schools chief in West Milford.
The rules are set to be officially approved in coming weeks and all school districts are expected to follow them during the 2008-09 school year. They put in place mandates set by New Jersey's new school funding formula, the School District Fiscal Accountability Act and the "CORE" reform law that emerged from last year's special legislative session on property tax reform.
"The governor has made it clear," Davy said. "The public is telling us that they want greater transparency and accountability."
Many of the reforms have already been phased in during the current budget season, such as having county superintendents review requests for tax increases over a 4 percent cap.
In recent years, superintendents have reacted with anger or confusion to the states' tightening grip on local spending. However, those public complaints faded after Governor Corzine increased state aid to school districts by more than $500 million this year.
Tenafly Superintendent Mort Sherman said most superintendents would agree that transparency is a good thing in school budgets — in no small part because the public must vote to approve them every year.
"The overwhelming majority of county and local superintendents will say this is OK," he said. "Times are tough. We need to roll up our sleeves."
The state School Boards Association had expressed concern about some of the reforms as the original laws were being debated; spokesman Frank Belluscio said his group had not yet seen the draft rules on Wednesday. He recalled the organization's worry about making county superintendents gubernatorial appointees.
"That brings in a lot of political concerns," he said.
He said that while the goals of the reforms were shared, his organization "would have be concerned about any type of over-regulation. ... School boards in New Jersey are highly fiscally responsible, and they operate under an ethics act that is stricter than that for other public officials."
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