In total, taxpayers approved 429 of the 538 budgets
Dan Kurinzi (center) signs the ledger as he and his wife Marie (left) cast their ballots at Battin Middle School in Elizabeth. Voters appeared to be less harsh than last year on New Jersey's school budgets.In a stunning reversal of last year’s record budget defeats, New Jersey voters approved 79.7 percent of the school budgets considered Wednesday, the highest rate of passage in a decade.
Voters considered the cuts in programs, teacher layoffs and higher fees for extracurricular activities and courtesy busing that resulted from last year’s defeats when they hit the polls yesterday.
In total, taxpayers approved 429 of the 538 budgets considered with overwhelming approval in Somerset, Essex and Morris counties. Most districts proposed budgets at or below the 2 percent tax levy cap imposed by Gov. Chris Christie last year.
“Voters understood the difficult choices many school boards had to make this year when developing their budget proposals,” said Raymond Wiss, president of the New Jersey School Boards Association.
Last year, at the urging of Gov. Chris Christie in a full-on assault of school spending and increasing property taxes, voters defeated more than half the state’s budgets for the first time in 40 years.
Districts where budgets were approved Wednesday after having been rejected last year included Edison, Parsippany and Woodbridge. However, spending plans were rejected for the second year in a row in Rahway, Monroe and Linden.
Previous coverage:
• Voters across N.J. approve school budgets in greater numbers than last year
ELECTION RESULTS BY COUNTY:
• Essex
• Gloucester
• Hunterdon
• Hudson
• Mercer
• Middlesex
• Morris
• Salem
• Somerset
• Union