I was at the School Board meeting on Tuesday August 23rd. The preliminary results for the fiscal year that ended June 30 were distributed. I was surprised by the significant amount of favorability.
On the revenue side, the district was favorable by $1,525,215 due to extra state aid that was received last year for special education programs ( this is not the same $1.5 million that was discussed last month).
The expense side was very favorable. The general fund budget was $149,117,753. Actual spending was $137,769,710, so the favorability was $11,348,043. Yes, $11 million. The actual spending was 7.6 percent below the budget.
In total the general fund was $12,873,258 favorable to the budget.
Looking at it differently, the school district collected $137,533,026 from taxpayers for the general fund. If the actual state aid and actual spending had been used for the 2010-’11 budget, then the tax levy could have been reduced by this $12,873,258, representing a 9.3 percent reduction. Hence, nine cents of every dollar collected for the school tax was not needed to run the schools.
Since this excessive budget was used as the basis for the 2011-’12 budget, that budget is also inflated by the $11 million spending favorability. Once again the taxpayers are being overcharged. Rather than the moderate 2 percent budget to budget increase that the school district talks about, the increase on a budget versus actual basis is more like 10 percent.
On August 24, I attended the Plainsboro Township Committee meeting meeting.
During the public comments I explained these numbers to the committee. Hopefully, they will understand that using budget to budget numbers will continue to compound the excessive tax burden on the community.
Quentin Walsh, CPA
4 Petty Road, Plainsboro
Quentin Walsh is the husband of WWP School Board member Ellen Walsh. The comments above reflect his views and not hers.
