Dear Editor:
One big “hooray” for the voters and the Secaucus School Board for passing the school budget on April 16. Intelligent effort, prudent decisions and transparency paid off.
Property owners in New Jersey are caught in an extraordinary tax bind. No other state puts so great a portion of its budget on property owners. Local politicians, in towns large and small, can blame the state or blame the county while meeting their obligations with grants from other levels, i.e. the same tax dollars under a different name. They can also point to rising school budgets. The problem is that the only place local property owners can directly protest their taxes and directly vote for or against a tax rate is in local school budget elections. That is the main reason why so many school budgets fail to pass in New Jersey.
That the Secaucus School system triumphed over these nearly impossible odds took world class effort and a recent history of providing an outstanding education with obviously responsible management. They were held accountable and the voters said “Yes!” The children will be grateful.
William J. Donnelly