Reason #6 to vote YES on April 20: Our budget is DECREASING from 09/10 to 10/11.

While it’s correct that our tax levy is increasing at the cap-induced maximum of 4%, in reality, the Ridgewood Public Schools’ overall budget is going down next year.

Huh? How does that work?

If you look at the budget for the district (click here), you will see that revenues are decreasing from $90,494,444 in 09/10 to $89,441,565 in 10/11. This is due primarily to the cuts in state aid.

Because we have a balanced budget, you will also see that our expenses are likewise decreasing from $90,494,444 in 09/10 to $89,441,565.

Once we factored in the increases in our expenses (contractual increases, tuition increases, health insurance premiums going up, transportation costs going up, etc.) and then factored in the decrease in our revenue (thank you, Governor Christie), we were left with a big gap. A tax increase of 4% closed part of the gap. And the $6.4 million of programming/staff cuts closed the rest.

The important point I wanted to make today is: we have trimmed a lot from our budget. We are not increasing our overall budget. We still have the same number of students. And we’ll still educate every one of them. Voting YES on the budget will allow us to provide the education that we’ve worked so hard to maintain, through the budget cut process. Voting NO on the budget means we’ll have to cut even more (assuming the Village Council would recommend additional cuts).

Please VOTE YES on April 20.