At the 3/1 special meeting of the Hammonton Board of Education it was announced that the Board would introduce a budget this year with a ZERO tax increase. Increased revenue from town ratables and additional state aid from the state of New Jersey along with other budgetary moves throughout the year will allow the school district to increase programs and services throughout the district without raising the taxes for the residents of Hammonton. In this budget the district will be able to hire 5 additional teachers which will add additional programs at all levels within the district. The Board will also return courtesy bussing to the levels that were offered before being cut for the current school year. This means that students will no longer have to cross Bellevue Avenue to walk to school. The district also announced that the school has put together a plan to take back control of the middle school fields that were leased to the Town last summer. This is a win-win for the taxpayers and students of Hammonton.
Yes, it is certainly a great day for the Town and the Schools.
The Board of Education explained at the meeting that the biggest source of new revenue comes from correctly charging Waterford tuition. That amounted to over $2.4 million in new revenue. The tuition for attending high school is now $10,244.
The Board also explained it is well within the state funding box for a thorough and efficent education.
It is a wonderful 180 degree turn around thanks to the work of a lot of people who identified the key problem and fixed it. As can be seen now by the Hammonton taxpayer, the financial plan put in place last year is a great success.
Now we can look forward to a bright future at the schools thanks to great teamwork between the Board of Education and the Town.
Yes great news , at last . but I must ask 2.4 for Waterford. almost 1 mil from Trenton. That's 3.4 mil in all. Plus the increase in the ratable base. So in all reality the BOE is spending a huge amount in 2007. What happens in 2008. Please say it isn't so.
The great thing is the $2.4 million extra coming from Waterford by charging the the correct tuition is that it is a continuing revenue stream which will come every year. Also the ratables are here to stay every year. In the past State aid was flat, never lower. So overall the School has revenue sources it can count on. What a great job!
Next year an additional NEW $1M comes from Waterford to repay Hammonton for previous underpayments that have been uncovered. Tht money can be used to fix the roof at the elementary school, for example.
So overall the teamwork between the Town and the School has been a great benefit to the taxpayers. Last year's finanical plan kept the taxes down and paid off wth HUGE dividends this year.
It is a great win for the taxpayers and the students!
It's a great day for the whole town. The finanical plan that was put into place last year worked perfectly. The School's Finance Committee, headed by Steve DiDonato and the Business Administartor, Barbara Prettyman, really turned a bad situation into a winner.
Anonymous wrote: Agreed. It seems that the new Business Adminastrator is doing much better than the last one!!!!!
This is absolutely true. The most important part of the turn around plan that the Town put in place for the School was to accurately track costs per student. By doing that, the correct tuition could be charged to Waterford.
As everyone now knows, Hammonton was always spending a lot more money per student than they thought. They weren't charging Waterford enough so the Hammonton taxpayers had to pay extra to cover the cost of educating Waterford kids.
Now that Waterford will pay a continuing revenue stream of $2.4M per year more, plus annual cost increases, taxes can be kept stable.
The School's Business Administrator and Finance Committee executed the plan perfectly and all Hammonton taxpayers benefit. Also, the money allows expansion of educational opportunities for the kids.
This is all all excellent! No tax increase at the school this year after the Town held their tax increase down last year. No tax increase at the town last year. If the Mayor can do that again we'll be one of the few towns in the whole state to have no tax increase at all. This is great news!
The school taxes are not increasing for the first time in over a decade. The town taxes also haven't increased. All I know is that the same people who are blasting Hammonton First are the people who wanted big school tax increases. Hammonton First kept our taxes down. Maybe now the same people attacking HF should try to learn how to stop spending our tax dollars because for many people in NJ keeping property taxes down is a major issues.
I don't recall anyone saying HF wanted big school tax increases. However, I do recall people complaining that we as taxpayers have now paid twice for property we own. And now after only receiving the payment a few weeks ago, the school is already taking back ownership of the land.
Anonymous wrote: The school taxes are not increasing for the first time in over a decade. The town taxes also haven't increased. All I know is that the same people who are blasting Hammonton First are the people who wanted big school tax increases. Hammonton First kept our taxes down. Maybe now the same people attacking HF should try to learn how to stop spending our tax dollars because for many people in NJ keeping property taxes down is a major issues.
I think the taxpayers are seeing this in a big way.
Yes, the taxpayers are seeing the truth in a big way. For the last 5 years the school has complained that the state was not funding our district properly. The state finally admitted that this year by giving our district more than most districts in the state. Most districts got a flat 3% increase in aid, while Hammonton received a 10.7% increase. Gov. Corzine even said in his address that the districts that were unfairly hurt the last few years would receive additional aid and we did. HF loves claiming credit for things they had nothing to do with.
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Anonymous
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Hammonton News reports $2.9 million new money from Waterford and Folsom
The Hammonton News reports that the school will recieve an extra $2.9 million from Waterford and Folsom, by far the largest amount of new fundng they get this year. This was the centerpiece of the Mayor's turn around plan. For years, no one discussed the importance of charging the correct amount until HF brought it up. With the new Business Administrator, who was hired by new School Finance Commitee Chaiperson Steve DIDonato, the school is now executing on the Hf plan and things are moving along great.
The bashers kept saying the plan would never work and extra taxes woud hae to be added to the taxes. Now we see that they were totally wrong.
If it wasn't for the state coming through with almost $1,000,000 there would have been a tax increase this year. Thankfully the stat has admitted the problem it has caused and the school has been saying that all along. But you chose to ignore that and have bashed the school for five years. Now you see that you were wrong.
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Anonymous
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HAMMONTON ONLY TOWN IN STATE WITH NO TAX INCREASE THIS YEAR!
Anonymous wrote: The Hammonton News reports that the school will recieve an extra $2.9 million from Waterford and Folsom, by far the largest amount of new fundng they get this year. This was the centerpiece of the Mayor's turn around plan. For years, no one discussed the importance of charging the correct amount until HF brought it up. With the new Business Administrator, who was hired by new School Finance Commitee Chaiperson Steve DIDonato, the school is now executing on the Hf plan and things are moving along great.
The bashers kept saying the plan would never work and extra taxes woud hae to be added to the taxes. Now we see that they were totally wrong.
Good job everybody!
This $2.9 million is a big win for the taxpayers. Without HF putting this plan together, tere would have been another year of big tax increases. THE RESULTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES. NO TAC INCREASE FOR HAMMONTON.
If you remember, the discrepancies were pointed out by the school district's auditor. This audit is done every year as required by law. Therefore, the district found out about the problems through a normal process. That pointed the problems in the direction of the previous Business Administrator who was then let go and a replacement hired. The replacement has corrected the problems resulting in the $2.5 million gain in tuition. Yes the HF FOC'rs surely did publicize the problem but the normal process found the problem and the board corrected it by hiring a more competent person. THE RESULT, NO TAX INCREASE FOR HAMMONTON.
Anonymous wrote: The Hammonton News reports that the school will recieve an extra $2.9 million from Waterford and Folsom, by far the largest amount of new fundng they get this year. This was the centerpiece of the Mayor's turn around plan. For years, no one discussed the importance of charging the correct amount until HF brought it up. With the new Business Administrator, who was hired by new School Finance Commitee Chaiperson Steve DIDonato, the school is now executing on the Hf plan and things are moving along great.
The bashers kept saying the plan would never work and extra taxes woud hae to be added to the taxes. Now we see that they were totally wrong.
Good job everybody!
It wasn't until Steve DiDonato got on the school board and Hammonton First got into office that this turned around. Now things are going well. The school is going to be hiring new teachers, buying new computers, improving education and all this with NO TAX INCREASE! Fantastic!
Congratulations to Steve DiDonato and Joe Giralo who both worked very hard on this budget along with the administration and superintendent. However, HF had nothing to do with this turn around. The school district knew there was a problem before it was pointed out by the fiscal oversight committee, a chimp could see that. The Board implemented the plan that turned things around, which included changing the Business Administrator.
Yes, The members of the school board have been doing a great job with the budget.
We need to keep the board moving foward, and this year's board election going to be important. We need to put the right people on the job, and keep the wrong people out. I will be looking foward to hearing about about these candidates!
Anonymous wrote: The Hammonton News reports that the school will recieve an extra $2.9 million from Waterford and Folsom, by far the largest amount of new fundng they get this year. This was the centerpiece of the Mayor's turn around plan. For years, no one discussed the importance of charging the correct amount until HF brought it up. With the new Business Administrator, who was hired by new School Finance Commitee Chaiperson Steve DIDonato, the school is now executing on the Hf plan and things are moving along great.
The bashers kept saying the plan would never work and extra taxes woud hae to be added to the taxes. Now we see that they were totally wrong.
Good job everybody!
It wasn't until Steve DiDonato got on the school board and Hammonton First got into office that this turned around. Now things are going well. The school is going to be hiring new teachers, buying new computers, improving education and all this with NO TAX INCREASE! Fantastic!
How pathetic for HF to take credit for everything. They should give credit as well to all Board members not just their DiDonato and Costa. I assume that they are willing to endorse Giralo, Rehman, Lyons, Weiss and Velardi instead of trying to put in puppets.
Anonymous wrote: It's a great day for the whole town. The finanical plan that was put into place last year worked perfectly. The School's Finance Committee, headed by Steve DiDonato and the Business Administartor, Barbara Prettyman, really turned a bad situation into a winner.
THE MAYOR HAD NO TURNAROUND PLAN. He lent the school district some money which they are already paying back. THE SCHOOL DISTRICT CAME UP WITH THE PLAN THAT IS TURNING THE DISTRICT AROUND. Stop and think. You are alienating your own people. They are embarrassed by the fact that you continue to take credit for things you didn't do. But that's fine with us. Keep it up. It makes our job that much easier.
Actually, anyone that watched last year's school budget hearing would know that the biggest discussion was the town explaining that the school had to charge the correct tuition rate.
The biggest reason the $1.2M bailout worked without causing a tax increase this year as the naysayers said was that the Mayor knew that once the tuition was fixed the school would have plenty of money and not need the $1.2M from the taxpayers.
It has worked so well that the school wants to buy back the fields, which frankly was probably better than anyone expected. The bottom line is the taxpayers see positive progress that the naysayers claimed would not happen.
the town explaining that the school had to charge the correct tuition rate.
I don't think the town said this. I think the school board and administration realized they wern't charging correct tuition.
as the naysayers said
Who are these naysayers you keep talking about?????
the bottom line is the taxpayers see positive progress that the naysayers claimed would not happen.
I, "a naysayer" knew the plan proposed by the fiscial oversight committee would never work. Mayor wanted to put another un-needed finiancial burden on the school district by taking property the taxpayers already paid for, and purchasing it again. The "naysayers" were nervous that this was just one more band-aide over the problem. Just a one year quick fix that got our school district in trouble to begin with. The "naysayers" were looking for a long term plan, like charging sending districts an appropriate tuition, and getting our fair share of state aide. The "naysayers" got the tuition rate correct, and got us more of the state aid we deserve.
It looks like the "naysayers" were right all along, dispite the games played by Mayor and Council!!!!!!!!!
