RED BANK: SCHOOL TAX HIKE TRIMMED TO 10 PERCENT

The Red Bank Borough Schools Board of Education public hearing on the 2025-2026 budget.   (Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)

By BRIAN DONOHUE

The Red Bank Board of Education passed a 2025-2026 budget that raises the amount local taxpayers pay for the two borough schools by 9.9 percent on Tuesday, just hours after a last-minute denial by the state of a larger increase.

Red Bank Borough School District Superintendent Jared Rumage lamented the need for the tax increase but cited multiple factors squeezing school finances, including years of state aid shortfalls, the state property tax cap and the financial drain created by the Red Bank Charter School. 

“The system is failing us,” he said.  

The budget will raise the school portion of the property tax bills by about $420 for a home assessed at the townwide average of $600,000, Rumage said. 

That increase is smaller than what had been originally planned, the result of a last minute curveball from Trenton. 

The board had been seeking permission from the state Department of Education to raise the tax levy above the legal two percent cap under a special one time, last minute provision for districts being clobbered by reductions in their state aid. (see previous coverage below).

Limited under the one-time provision to a $6.5 million tax levy hike, the board asked for an increase of $1.8 million.  Along with additional money kicked in by the state under the program, the sum would close the gap left by $2.5 million in cuts to state and federal aid to the district.

RED BANK SCHOOLS SEEK TAX HIKE TO COVER STATE AID CUTS

Three hours before their planned vote on the budget, Rumage and board members were told by the state their application had been only partially approved. The state approved a tax levy hike of $1.25 million – just two thirds of the levy hike requested, he said. 

The state denied the inclusion in the tax levy expenditures the cost of five literacy interventionists and extracurricular activities, both of which had been covered in previous budgets by other funding sources that have dried up, Rumage said.

Still, Rumage said after the meeting at the Red Bank Primary School, he was confident there should be no need for layoffs.

“We’re going to have to squeeze them in,” he said of the literacy interventionists whose salaries had been paid for by federal funds. 

Rumage cited what he called a three-pronged “triangle of challenges” repeatedly straining Red Bank’s school budget year after year. 

They include:

• A “decade of underfunding” that has shorted the schools $44 million in expected state aid.
• The state’s two-percent cap on tax increases to the tax levy, which applies even in years in which inflation, salaries and health care costs have risen at higher rates.
• The requirement that the district send annual payments – which this year totals $2.8 million – to the Red Bank Charter School.

Repeating an argument long repeated by school and borough officials, Rumage cited the inefficiency of having two separate public school systems in a town of 13,000.

“Red Bank is an anomaly,” Rumage said during his budget presentation.  “No other community of similar size in the entire state of New Jersey implements a similar system.”

Board of Education President Sue Viscomi acknowledged the effects of the ten percent hike on household budgets.

“As taxpayers ourselves we do not take any increase lightly,” she said. “We are confident we have put together a budget that will be serve the entire school community.”

Board member Ann Roseman echoed those comments, saying of the tax increase”nobody likes to see this.”

She voiced concern over the trend of state aid reductions, fueled largely by rising property values and average incomes that prompts the state to reduce aid under its funding formula. 

“I hope this helps us bridge that gap somewhat but I’m very worried about this,” she said. 

redbankgreen editor Brian Donohue may be reached via email at  [email protected] or by calling or texting 848-331-8331 or yelling his name loudly as he walks by. Do you value the news coverage provided by redbankgreen? Please become a financial supporter if you haven’t already. Click here to set your own level of monthly or annual contribution.