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Wednesday, April 18, 2007

School Budgets: A concluding unscientific postscript



In a concluding unscientific postscript, PT takes a look at the school budget approval process (with apologies to Søren Kierkegaard).

School budgets are typically the largest tax-funded expenditure in any community, Union County not excepted.

Plainfield's total school expenditures are approximately double the city's budget, coming in at about $117M, of which $17M is raised by the city school levy.

Taking a look at all the Union County communities, as reported in the Star-Ledger, the first thing one notices is the small number of people who exercise the right to decide on the annual school budgets. The table below shows the votes for this year by community, ranked from largest (Elizabeth) to smallest (Winfield).

Since voter registration figures were not readily available, percentages are calculated on the total population (hence the 'unscientific' in the title). Even so, the results should be roughly indicative.

Berkely Heights, at 16.3%, and Scotch Plains/Fanwood, at 14%, had the highest voter participation relative to total population.

Elizabeth and Plainfield brought up the rear, with Plainfield dead last at 1.9%.

But there is another story inside the story of the low turnouts.

That is how many of those who turn out to vote DO NOT VOTE FOR A SCHOOL BOARD CANDIDATE.

Comparing the highest vote-getter among the candidates and the total number of votes cast for and against the budget question, one can get an idea of the number of people who voted on the budget question ONLY.

In Rahway, where the highest vote-getter received 531 votes and the total budget vote was 1,037, the difference -- 506 votes -- indicates that 48.8% of Rahway voters did not vote for a school board candidate at all.

In Plainfield, the highest vote-getter received 765 votes. Subtracted from the 883 budget vote total, there were 118 votes cast on the budget question only -- or 13.4% -- which placed Plainfielders as the community MOST concerned about school board candidates versus the budget question.

Union County School Budget Votes, 2007
(Ranked by population)
TOWN
YES
NO
TOTAL
POPULATION
%
Elizabeth
1,524
1,414
2,938
120,568
2.4
Union
1,124
729
1,853
54,405
3.4
Plainfield
483
400
883
47,829
1.9
Linden
967
949
1,916
39,394
4.9
Westfield
1,956
1,094
3,050
29,644
10.3
Rahway
628
409
1,037
26,500
4.0
Scotch Plains /Fanwood*
2,513
1,651
4,164
29,906
14.0
Cranford
1,259
746
2,005
22,578
8.9
Hillside
413
500
913
21,747
4.2
Roselle
404
556
960
21,274
4.5
Clark
675
297
972
14,597
6.7
Springfield
951
399
1,350
14,429
9.4
Berkeley Heights
1,335
853
2,188
13,407
16.3
Roselle Park
531
403
934
13,281
7.0
New Providence
518
430
948
11,907
8.0
Kenilworth
295
366
661
7,675
8.6
Mountainside
385
194
579
6,602
8.8
Garwood
176
292
468
4,153
11.3
Winfield
127
41
168
1,514
11.1
*Scotch Plains population is 22,732; Fanwood's is 7,174.

School Budgets in the news:
Courier: "Voters OK budgets in most polls"
Ledger: "Voters OK 15 of 19 school tabs"


-- Dan Damon

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