The Hoboken Tax Reform Coalition
Real Results: Hoboken Taxpayers Deserve a Break
Real Results: Hoboken Taxpayers Deserve a Break
HOBOKEN, NJ, April 6, 2010 — When voters go to the polls on Tuesday, April 20, the Real Results team urges them to vote NO on the school budget and yes for Kathleen Tucker (Line 5A), Perry Lin (7A), Liz Markevitch (10A) and John Forsman (2B). “There is a clear difference between Real Results and Kids First," says Lin. "We think the Hoboken taxpayers deserve a break, and Kids First doesn't.”
By passing a $57.9 million budget, the board voted against cutting school taxes for Hoboken residents for the year beginning July 1, despite a clear promise by the Kids First ticket a year ago that taxes would be cut. In fact, taxes may go up: The school tax rate has not yet been set, pending the outcome of the numerous tax appeals that have been filed. “After the city’s 47% overall tax hike a year ago, homeowners are going to be very disappointed that they’re not getting at least a cut in school taxes this year,” says Markevitch.
Yes, the board did lose $2.4 million in state aid. But Hoboken's school budget is so bloated that the board filled most of the gap with just attrition and retirements. In fact, more than $900,000 of the lost state aid was offset with one-shot revenues, including a dubious sale and leaseback of the textbooks that the district already owns. This pawning of our textbooks is eerily reminiscent of the financial gimmicks former Mayor Dave Roberts used to balance the city budget before it blew up, especially the ill-fated leaseback deal for the Observer Highway municipal garage.
Tucker, Lin, Markevitch and Forsman believe that if the board had really focused on the fat in the budget, it would have been easy for Kids First to keep its tax-cut promise. But where was the hard look at where the money goes? Real Results isn't alone in thinking that the board could have gone further. At the March 30 budget hearing, School Business Administrator Robert Davis said, "Can further cuts be made? Absolutely! Without question! You can always cut more in a budget." Davis said he could cut "$1.5 million in 5 minutes; it's not hard to do."
One big way to cut costs is to contract out services. The previous administration brought in a private company to run the cafeteria, but Kids First missed an opportunity to take it further. Districts around the state are realizing substantial savings by contracting out services such as transportation, business operations, child-study teams, occupational/physical therapy, security, technology and especially custodial work. Schools don't need to be the cleaning business, or in many other of these operations. Why won't the board consider these options? Is it because they want to protect the jobs of friends and family? Board members have relatives and campaign contributors working in several of those departments. "We should concentrate on our school system's main purpose--educating Hoboken children--and leave some of these other jobs to people who know how to best manage them," says Tucker.
Ironically, a year ago the board cut taxes by 2.81% and conducted a round of layoffs. Back then Hoboken’s old guard controlled the board and Kids First ran for office promising to be much more aggressive in weeding out wasteful spending and lowering taxes. “No one wants to go back to those days, but it’s very sad that Kids First couldn’t even cut taxes as much as the old board did, a board that was famous for spending money,” says Forsman.
In addition, Kids First claims that it balanced the budget without touching educational programs. But that's just not true. They eliminated the rigorous International Baccalaureate (IB) program at Hoboken High School without any public discussion. The IB program has been a major draw for parents deciding whether to send their children to the high school. Kids First has talked vaguely about replacing IB with Advanced Placement (AP) classes, but there are no concrete plans to do that yet. This was another example of how Kids First talks about community involvement, but makes big decisions behind closed doors.
Here's what else Real Results would push to do:
· Freeze most overtime pay.
· Renegotiate health-care contracts and consider new vendors without cutting benefits.
· Immediately re-register all students with the aim of sending back to their home districts the estimated 200 out-of-town students whose parents have illegally enrolled them in Hoboken schools.
· Complete negotiations on an administrators' contract that results in actual savings for the district and not greater costs, as is the case with the recently signed custodians' contract. That deal, negotiated by Kids First, awards a 10.9% raise over three years, increased pay for longevity, yet another day off and a $700 clothing allowance.
· Cut the $1.2 million transportation budget by eliminating most overtime and other wasteful spending. A thorough audit early last year exposed endless examples of misguided and just plain dumb spending. But next year's budget calls for a $100,000 increase in the transportation budget, instead of a cut.
· Reduce the especially free-spending athletic budget, partly by finding cheaper sources of equipment and supplies and seeking standard sponsorship arrangements with well-known companies. Some of the savings should go toward starting new teams, especially for the middle-school grades. The school board is spending $857,000 this year to support 17 teams in 14 sports with none for the middle-school grades. In comparison, larger Madison High spends $805,000 on 57 teams, including many in middle school.
· Cancel the $225,000 plan to give a laptop to each 8th and 9th grader to take home next year. This poorly thought-out program threatens to become a boondoggle because inadequate provisions have been made for maintaining and keeping track of the 250 laptops, and it all but commits the school board to spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in the years ahead as students reach 8th grade and expect laptops of their own. For next year only, this money comes from Washington and not Hoboken taxes, but it can be used for items that tax money must now be spent on. These items include a much-needed new phone system, an upgrade to the district’s computer network, additional desktop computers for classrooms to replace ones that are up to five years old, white boards for the classrooms, and the continuation of tutoring of struggling students that began last year.
Unlike Kids First, we're not afraid to shake up the status quo. We will examine every additional line of the budget to see where the rest of the fat has settled.
One avenue the board never pursued was to talk to the unions about a salary freeze. Our teachers and custodians are already among the best-paid in the state and come July 1, the teachers union collects a 4.3% raise for its members and the custodians get 3.8% more. This is an action recommended by both Gov. Chris Christie and the NJ School Boards Association--two players that are not often on the same side. The association says almost all boards in the first and second years of their contracts are talking to their local unions about doing this. Several districts have already agreed on this, and to encourage more districts to freeze salaries, Christie is offering to reduce their cuts in state aid. Hoboken, which is in the second year of its contract, never even broached the topic. A complete freeze would have saved $1.2 million; paying perhaps half the scheduled raise could have saved $600,000. No wonder the teachers union is solidly behind Kids First and this overstuffed budget. When former Kids First board member Maureen Sullivan asked if the administration had even considered reopening the negotiations, all the other board members could do was laugh. Sullivan has endorsed the Real Results ticket.
The board also never discussed with the unions having all staff pay 1.5% of their salaries toward their health insurance. The vast majority of the school board's employees pay nothing toward their insurance premiums and only token amounts for co-pays and deductibles. By law, all local government workers must begin paying 1.5% toward health insurance no later than when their current contract ends. Hoboken should have talked to the unions about requiring these payments immediately.
If you want a school board that knows you don't have to spend taxpayers into oblivion to guarantee an excellent education for the children of Hoboken, vote for Tucker, Lin, Markevitch and Forsman on April 20. Too much of the money we spend goes into pockets instead of into classrooms!
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by InfotainMe on
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Permalink Reply by Lincolnlogger on -
"The IB program has been a major draw for parents deciding whether to send their children to the high school."
Is that why there were only two IB graduates last year? Definitely a major draw. Yep, no reason to cut that program at all and replace with AP classes that will serve more college-bound high school students.
The problem with "Real Results" is that they try really hard to sound smart, and know just a little about the schools in Hoboken and the needs of the students. Maybe if they had kids in the system they would understand more. A little knowledge is indeed a dangerous thing.
Me, I prefer people who are already knowledgeable about the school system, who are dedicated to not just making budget cuts, but the RIGHT budget cuts in the right manner. I'd rather have people on the Board of Education who won't cut first and ask questions (or reap negative consequences) later. I'd like a Board who does their homework, knows that we have a marching band, knows parents and the kids, and knows what their talking about. That certainly isn't "Real Results".
That's Kids First, hands down.
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Permalink Reply by Overtaxed on
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I personally think that KidsFirst proved total incompetence looking at their last year's performance. There's also a conflict of interest to have BoE members who have family members as employees of the school district or kids enrolled in the schools ( I agree to have a parent or two as board members, but not a majority). KidsFirst are toxic for the taxpayers with an interest of seeing their taxes lowered. They proved to be the same political hacks as the ones before them: same lies, same tactics!
That leaves me with one choice in choosing the future members!
Folks, you have to vote the school budget down, even if your kids are enrolled!
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Permalink Reply by rosethorn on
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Are all the Kids First Kool-Aid drinkers purposely avoiding this item? Jane and Hull and Meatloaf and NiceToBe and the Horse and the rest of the rabble have been endlessly asking Real Results for details on potential cuts and other points on their platform. Here it is posted--and at other places, too--and not a word. Seems like this item shut them all up nicely.
What's seems to be true is that the Kids First candidates are the ones without any ideas. They've put out no platform, have suggested no proposals for the next year, have not talked about any ideas for making the schools better and giving the taxpayers a break. It's just attack, attack, attack Sullivan--who's not even running--and Liz Markevitch and her team. When is the KF platform going to be released? At the debate it was made apparent that their candidates don't even know what's going on in the schools now, much less have plans for improvement. Leon Gold made mistake after mistake, while all the time looking mean and angry. Going into the debate I had thought he was the one reformer KF had put up. The debate showed that reform is furthest from his mind, just like the rest of them. A highlight of the debate, though, was Rose Markle admitting that maybe KF had made a mistake in approving that gold-plated custodians' contract without any real givebacks. Score one for Markevitch and Real Results. Let's make sure Markle doesn't have a chance to make the same mistake with the next contract.
And Logger, you're the one who's not knowledgeable. There is no high school marching band, no matter what KF tells you.
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Permalink Reply by Lincolnlogger on
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Oh, Hoboken doesn't have a band?
Someone better tell these kids who marched in the Little League parade last Saturday.
http://assets0.patch-assets.com/assets/photos/000/323/150/323150_ex...
I'm guessing you haven't been to many parades in the last couple of years.
Let me help you out, here's a nice article telling about the band's revival in 2008. But I guess you missed it.
http://www.nj.com/hobokennow/index.ssf/2008/04/rockin_redwings.html
rosethorn said:
And Logger, you're the one who's not knowledgeable. There is no high school marching band, no matter what KF tells you.
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Permalink Reply by ditto on
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Kids First candidate Irene Sobolov has two children who play in the band and they're not the only two in the band. It's a fantastic spirited marching band and I know it well from the Halloween parades.
I recommend a reading of the Revolt questions for the two slates. The contrast in depth and thoughtfulness is stark. It seems Real Results can't or won't answer questions anywhere from anyone. All they offer are platitudes and attacks against Kids First. And don't be fooled Sullivan is running by proxy; where do you think Real Results came from?
rosethorn said:Are all the Kids First Kool-Aid drinkers purposely avoiding this item? Jane and Hull and Meatloaf and NiceToBe and the Horse and the rest of the rabble have been endlessly asking Real Results for details on potential cuts and other points on their platform. Here it is posted--and at other places, too--and not a word. Seems like this item shut them all up nicely.
What's seems to be true is that the Kids First candidates are the ones without any ideas. They've put out no platform, have suggested no proposals for the next year, have not talked about any ideas for making the schools better and giving the taxpayers a break. It's just attack, attack, attack Sullivan--who's not even running--and Liz Markevitch and her team. When is the KF platform going to be released? At the debate it was made apparent that their candidates don't even know what's going on in the schools now, much less have plans for improvement. Leon Gold made mistake after mistake, while all the time looking mean and angry. Going into the debate I had thought he was the one reformer KF had put up. The debate showed that reform is furthest from his mind, just like the rest of them. A highlight of the debate, though, was Rose Markle admitting that maybe KF had made a mistake in approving that gold-plated custodians' contract without any real givebacks. Score one for Markevitch and Real Results. Let's make sure Markle doesn't have a chance to make the same mistake with the next contract.
And Logger, you're the one who's not knowledgeable. There is no high school marching band, no matter what KF tells you.
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Permalink Reply by rosethorn on
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you have got to be kidding? i saw this picture on patch the other day and thought that would end the discussion. someone posted it on a site somewhere to show how silly you and the rest of the "we have a HS marching band" crowd is. if this is what you mean by the HS marching band then you're right and i've completely misunderstood you. but does this band march at halftime of HHS football games? are these kids in high school? of course not. this is the band Gary Enrico started up a few years ago. the kids are in grade school. i recognize some of them myself. 5th, 6th and 7th graders. there are some 4th graders, too. instead of attacking Real Results on stupid stuff like this, why don't you engage them on the issues? but from what i've seen you haven't laid a glove on them. not one of their facts has been successfully challenged. and virtually everything KF says turns out to be wrong, like about paula, and AP and the out of town kids. and Liz and her team are the only ones putting out facts and discussing the issues. Kids First has yet to lay out one idea or proposal of what they'll do if they win the election. What will KF do? hand out another round of unwarranted raises, like they did last night?
Lincolnlogger said:Oh, Hoboken doesn't have a band?
Someone better tell these kids who marched in the Little League parade last Saturday.
http://assets0.patch-assets.com/assets/photos/000/323/150/323150_ex...
I'm guessing you haven't been to many parades in the last couple of years.
Let me help you out, here's a nice article telling about the band's revival in 2008. But I guess you missed it.
http://www.nj.com/hobokennow/index.ssf/2008/04/rockin_redwings.html
rosethorn said:
And Logger, you're the one who's not knowledgeable. There is no high school marching band, no matter what KF tells you.
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Permalink Reply by Sven on
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ditto said:... I recommend a reading of the Revolt questions for the two slates. The contrast in depth and thoughtfulness is stark. It seems Real Results can't or won't answer questions anywhere from anyone. All they offer are platitudes and attacks against Kids First. ...
Who are you kidding?! Before recommending to others that they should read the responses, why don't you do so yourself. Look at Question 6, for instance (The current board recently approved a budget that will effectively result in no change in the tax levy. What cuts, if any, can you identify that could have been made to reduce the current budget? Should the proposed budget be approved by the voters?). Then you will see that RR listed very specific items where they believe savings could be achieved:
"We would support investigating the wage freezes recommended by the governor, cutting overtime, renegotiating health-care costs without eliminating benefits, sending out-of-town kids back to their home districts and finding partnerships with p rivate companies to underwrite costs."
Meanwhile, KF talk about their (underwhelming IMHO) achievements of the past year but leave it totally up to the imagination of the reader what they will do in the future:
"Last April, all the Board Trustees unanimously agreed upon certain goals moving forward, two of which were – no increase in the tax levy and no cuts to successful classroom programs. The recently approved budget met both of those goals.
Considering the devastation occurring in many other districts around the State, we were
pleased to be praised by many, including NJ State Education Commissioner Bret Schundler. He praised the district on the diligent and thoughtful work that went into the budget presented by Superintendent Carter and Business Administrator Davis.
Every cut was reviewed and every possible savings was reflected. This was accomplished even thought the district had lost almost 2.5 million total of 5% of our budget in State Aid.
It took many years of mismanagement to create the situation that was inherited last year.
This year inroads were made but we must continue the progress, while continuing to improve the quality of education that we are providing for the students."
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