FLOW Area July 27, 2011 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • Page 5 Regional school district to use aid for tax relief by Frank J. McMahon The Ramapo Indian Hills Regional High School Board of Education has decided to use the district’s additional $463,514 in state aid for the purpose of tax relief. The funds will be applied to the district’s 2012-13 budget. This additional state funding doubles the amount of state aid that was approved for the district in February. The district will receive a total of $927,038 in state aid for 201112. In 2010-11, the district received no state aid at all. Governor Chris Christie announced the additional state aid on July 12, and provided several options for the use of the money, but he encouraged school districts to use the additional aid for immediate tax relief. The board could have amended the current budget to either spend the additional funding in 2011-12 or reduce the current budget to return the money to the taxpayers immediately. The board also had the options to defer the use of the money for tax relief until either 2012-13 or 2013-14. The board’s Finance Committee recommended that the board leave the 2011-12 budget as it is, and defer the use of the additional aid for tax relief in 2012-13. Although Wyckoff Township Committeeman Thomas Madigan, the township’s liaison to the regional school board, argued to have the money used for immediate tax relief, the school board agreed with the Finance Committee’s recommendation at last week’s regularly scheduled public meeting. Frank Ceurvels, the school district’s business administrator, emphasized that the board’s main objective was to give the additional aid back to the community and not increase spending. He explained that the funds will be included on the revenue side of the 2012-13 budget, along with other revenues such as state aid, property taxes, and miscellaneous revenues, but the total revenues must match that budget’s total expenditures and must fit within the two percent budget cap mandate. “If state aid is reduced, it is possible that taxes may increase to make up for that shortfall,” Ceurvels explained further, “but that would be dependent on the budget guidelines and on the board at budget time.” Ceurvels also emphasized that, even with the additional aid, the regional school district is still almost $1.2 million short of its state aid entitlement under the existing regulations of the School Funding Reform Act of 2008. The Franklin Lakes K-8 school district will receive an additional $251,625 in aid over the aid that was previously approved in February 2011, and $503,250 more than was received in 2010-11. That district has decided to defer making a decision on the use of the additional state aid until the next budget preparation time. Governor Christie emphasized that the additional school aid is being provided to all districts in the state. He pointed out that, this year, New Jersey increased state aid to school districts by $850 million over last year, “restoring every dollar of the cuts the state was forced to make last year and increasing aid by an additional $30 million.” Christie explained that the new funding includes an additional $450 million for the 31 Abbott districts, which fully funds them under the School Funding Reform Act formula, and an additional $150 million for non-Abbott districts, doubling the increase he had already approved in (continued on page 23)