FREEHOLD – Administrators in the Freehold Borough K-8 School District have lowered the district’s tax levy for 2017-18 after receiving $955,792 more in state aid for the upcoming school year.
The extra school aid was added to the 2018 New Jersey budget that was passed in the state Senate and Assembly and signed by Gov. Chris Christie following a three-day shutdown of state facilities during the first week of July.
On July 18, the Board of Education passed a resolution formally accepting the additional $955,792 in state aid and then passed a resolution designating $300,000 of that amount for tax levy relief for borough property owners.
The 2017-18 budget that was adopted by the board in April totaled $25.8 million and included $9.74 million in state aid and a tax levy of $11.54 million to be paid by Freehold Borough’s residential and commercial property owners.
The $955,792 boost increased state aid to $10.7 million and the $300,000 appropriated by the board for tax relief decreased the tax levy to $11.24 million.
When the budget was adopted, the owner of a home assessed at the borough average of $252,447 was expected to pay about $2,877 in K-8 school taxes during the next 12 months.
Because the tax levy has been lowered, the district’s tax rate will change, according to Business Administrator Joseph Howe. The new tax rate and the potential savings to property owners were not known as of July 19.
“Now that the new tax levy has been struck, the Freehold Borough tax office will be preparing tax bills and compute what the new [K-8] school tax rate is,” Howe said. “That information is not available as of [July 19] as this action just occurred [recently].”
“We thought it right and proper to include Freehold Borough’s taxpayers as part of our plans to use this additional supplemental state aid,” board President Michael Lichardi said. “Our taxpayers have taken on an unjustified additional burden as the state has flat funded the district for the past seven years. This is the first step toward making the funding of our schools balanced, as envisioned in the School Funding Reform Act of 2008.”
District administrators said a portion of the additional $955,792 in state aid will be dedicated toward raising teacher pay and adding four new teachers to decrease class size and provide educational services/programs.
