Board of Education to Discuss New Tax Cap Monday Night (Updated)

Editor's note: The following is a preview of Monday night's school board meeting, which has since taken place. For updates on the tax cap discussion – see our coverage here.

While many residents wonder about how recent proposals from Gov. Christie's office will affect the way education finances are handled locally, the Bernards Board of Education will talk informally about the same issue Monday night in their regularly scheduled July 26 meeting.

The passage of a new 2 percent property tax cap (down from the previous 4 percent cap) is likely to have a significant impact on the funding of public schools across the state, including Bernards, where the school district has not passed a budget with a tax increase under this year's 3.93 percent in well over a decade.

The Board had been projecting cuts of up to $1.3 million for the 2011-12 school year by the end of the 2010-11 school budget cycle, but those numbers were based on a 2.5 percent hard cap that was being proposed at the time. The effects of the new 2 percent cap, which does allow districts to apply for four exemptions from: rising health care costs, pension payments, debt service payments and capital expenditures, remain to be seen.

Tonight's Board meeting, held in the Board of Education office on 101 Peachtree Road, includes an agenda item for a Board Forum at the end of the meeting to talk about the new cap.

Bernards Superintendent Valerie Goger said that a Board member requested the item be added to the agenda, and that it will most likely be a brief informal discussion. "They probably just want to ask what it means or what the ramifications might be," Goger said.