Politics & Government

Sunoco Blows Nearly $2 Million Hole in West Deptford's School Budget

The settlement and revaluation of the soon-to-be-demolished Eagle Point refinery is at the center of a big gap in this year's budget.

members knew would loom large over this year’s budget—they just didn’t know how much damage would come from a tentative settlement and revaluation of the former refinery.

They got the ugly numbers Saturday morning at a public budget work session: a $45.286 million budget with a potential 8.119¢ tax rate increase, thanks to a $1.8 million drop-off in tax revenue from a ratable base that fell in value by 7 percent, or around $172 million this year.

While Sunoco doesn’t account for the entire reduction in value, superintendent Kevin Kitchenman said it’s most of that $172 million, which includes a general decrease in property values throughout the township.

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It was something about which school board President Christopher Strano sounded the alarm just a few weeks ago, and he said the district—and township, which will face that same drop in the municipal budget—will have to adjust to a new normal without a big ticket like Eagle Point, .

“Seven percent is pretty significant walking out of here,” he said. “It leaving is going to change a lot of things.”

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Had that ratable base stayed stable, on the other hand, the tax rate increase would’ve amounted to just 0.688¢.

But after hearing the initial budget presentation from Kitchenman, Strano said the tax rate hike—which represents $166.84 per year more for a home assessed at $207,966—is way too high, despite being below the state levy cap, and suggested the administration try to find ways to get the budget down to a 4.5-cent increase, or a little more than half of what’s being proposed. Every penny decrease in the proposed new rate would cut $20.80 off that $166.84.

“I think that’s a little more palatable to the taxpayer,” Strano said.

But as Kitchenman pointed out, cutting a single penny from that tax rate increase means cutting $254,676 from the school budget; getting down to a 4.5¢ tax rate increase would then mean cutting more than $912,000.

The only way to get that, the superintendent said, is to start cutting staff or programs.

“That’s the big money,” he said.

Strano said he doesn’t want to see programs get cut, but said the board has to strike a balance in the budget to come to a reasonable comprimise.

“We’ve got to find a way,” he said. “We just can’t have everything we want.”

Other board members raised points about individual pieces of the budget—a proposed new roof for Oakview, among others—but Strano said it’s not the board’s job to haggle over line items.

“The only thing we can do is give (administrators) a direction,” Strano said.

As Kitchenman pointed out during the presentation, one thing that could’ve lessened the hit from the ratable loss would’ve been state aid at the level the district got in 2009-10.

“We’re very happy we got an increase in state aid,” Kitchenman said. “In terms of full funding, we’re still not there.”

This year’s state aid is up about $259,000, but thanks to major cuts in 2010, there remains nearly $1 million to make up to get back to what state funds were in 2009-10.

Kitchenman stressed his budget presentation is just the initial version, and what will get approved by the board after a public budget hearing next month will most likely look very different, especially with the board’s requests for cuts, which Kitchenman said could ultimately come from a variety of different places.

“Everything’s on the table,” he said.

While the board took no action on the budget Saturday, there's a scheduled vote at Monday's meeting on its tentative approval.


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