TRENTON – Members of the Republican caucus worry early about the impact of a five percent cut in school district aid, a proposal in Gov. Chris Christie’s budget address Tuesday.
“The two biggest towns in my district are Brick and Toms River,” said state Sen. Andy Ciesla (R-Brick). “If this budget were to pass with the existing school funding formula as proposed, that would be a cut of $6.7 million in Brick and $10 million in Toms River. That’s a lot of money.”
Too much to run for re-election in 2011?
Ciesla smiled on his way out of a Senate Transportation Committee hearing.
“I’m running again,” he said. “I’m running for re-election in 2011. Check.”
But just like other jittery GOP legislators, he does want to eyeball that schools funding formula as proposed by Christie in his $28.3 billion budget address, which seeks to close a $10.7 billion deficit.
“I’m hopeful that in the final product we will find a way to modify some the elements in there, especially the cuts to school funding, and soften the impact,” Ciesla said. “I would hope that we could look at those districts that get the largest amount of state and reconfigure the formula so that they pay more. We’re talking about towns in my district with this proposal that lose all their state aid, and that’s not fair. Right now, it’s disproportionately spread across the districts.”
Ciesla described the proposed cuts at the municipal level as “tough” but probably doable.
