BOE : for it before they were against it
According to a Letter to the Editor written by Bob Hutton and published in The Record on January 14th, the BOE voted in November of 2011 not to move the election. Why the flip flop?
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Regarding "Losing a say" (Opinion, Page O-1, Jan. 8):
I agree. As a member of the Ridgewood Board of Education, I introduced a resolution at our last meeting clearly opposing moving school board elections from its traditional date in the spring to November. Incorporating school board elections into the general election in November is not a prudent change. The resolution passed.
I have always wondered why school board elections are treated differently from general elections. Annually, a board oversees the creation of a budget, passes a budget resolution and then starts a road show throughout the community to seek support for the budget. What other governing body is charged with that responsibility? None, in New Jersey. Why?
Should not all the elements that make up the property taxes of a municipality be determined by a vote of its electorate? Should not the voting public have a say on all bonding matters that affect their property taxes?
Where is the outcry that public education — a cornerstone of our democracy — is treated differently at every turn? One could look at eliminating the public vote on the school budget as leveling the playing field that our other municipal brethren have enjoyed for years. I don’t know if that is right, but I am one who would like consistency.
Bob Hutton
Ridgewood, Jan. 8
8 comments:
I agree with his point that we should get a chance to approve or disapprove the overall property tax number, just not the BOE piece. I doubt that the 7% municipal tax increase that we got jammed with this year would have ever been approved by the voters. This potential veto by the taxpayers would probably have made our Village Manager and council take a much, much harder line in last year's police and fire union contracts, where they missed great opportunities to cut costs.
Rumors are that Mr. Hutton wanted to see through contract negotiations with the Teacher's Union, and moving the elections to November was an easy way to ensure it because in all likelihood he would not have been elected again.
At least Mr. Hutton has had the guts to take a hard line with the teachers' union in the contract negotiations, instead of doing the easy thing and caving.
Hutton gets rolled every time by the NJEA and their professional negotiators.
12:09 Based on your logic we should also be able to vote on County,State and Fed Income Tax. Hay lets vote on the sanitation worker raise. Talk about clogging government that already moves slow. Rule by committee.Or are just hung up on Ridgewood.
12:09 How much in $$$ was your municipal portion of your bill? Not including library or county? Now how much increase was your BOE portion of your bill. The BOE is out of control!!!!
People never look at the tax bill. 1/3 is for municipal and the rest goes to BOED County and State. 12:09 maybe we should vote on Obama salary?
During Monday evening's BOE meeting, Board members opted to table the "move to November" resolution. The resolution may surface again within the next week or two, because a decision needs to be made by the end of February.
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