By Kenny Walter
Staff Writer
WEST LONG BRANCH- Shore Regional High School District officials are touting a flat tax levy for the 2016-2017 budget.
The Shore Regional High School Board of Education adopted the $16.1 million budget during the April 28 meeting.
“This 2016-2017 budget is aligned with this board of education’s core belief in shared services and fiscal responsibility,” Superintendent Thomas Farrell said in a press release. “It maintains our existing programs while seeking creative revenue-generating alternatives.
“It also reduces the Borough of Sea Bright’s tax levy burden once again.”
The $16.1 million budget is just a $37,000 more than the 2015-2016 budget.
The tax levy will remain at $14.7 million, the same as in previous years. The district will also receive $47,363 in state aid.
Farrell said he was proud of the overall budget.
“This is the fourth budget that I have been a part of,” Farrell said. “We are very proud of our sound fiscal management and shared services, with no loss of programming for our students.
“Our Business Administrator, Mr. Dennis Kotch, and our board of education should be commended once again.”
Under the budget, Sea Bright will see a 3.2 percent decrease in their portion of the districts tax levy, which will equate to a $467,052 decrease in the levy from last year.
However, Sea Bright Mayor Dina Long said during the May 3 Borough Council meeting that the borough was mainly contributing more in years past because of superstorm Sandy and the 13 percent they are contributing is similar to pre-Sandy numbers, which she said were too high.
“Shore is advertising a reduction in Sea Bright’s taxes this year, this is mainly because of the stabilization after Sandy,” she said.
According to Long, according to the figures for the 2015-16 school year, 18 students from Sea Bright attend Shore Regional, while Monmouth Beach sends 97 students, Oceanport sends 216 and West Long Branch sends 280.
“We have 18 students in the school and we pay 13 percent of the budget,” she said.
Borough officials have been battling for a more equitable share of the regional school tax levy for more than a decade.
In 2015, the borough created a School Funding Formula Task Force to explore various options, including holding a nonbinding referendum and the possibility of joining the Henry Hudson Regional School District. The referendum was rejected by the Shore Regional Board of Education.
During the Jan. 19 Borough Council meeting, the council passed a resolution hiring attorney Vito Gagliardi Jr., Porzio, Bromberg & Newman, to challenge the board’s decision not to allow the referendum to move forward.
Other options include a push on the legislative level to change the state funding formula for regional school districts from one based on the equalized value of real estate in each sending district to a per-pupil formula.
Long said last week that efforts to leave the school district are ongoing.
