In the wake of the Bayonne school budget failing to pass last week, the city Board of Education is slated to hold an emergency budget meeting on Thursday.
BAYONNE -- In the wake of the Bayonne school budget failing to pass last week, the city Board of Education is slated to hold an emergency budget meeting on Thursday.
The public meeting regarding the roughly $129 million budget, which was introduced with a 2.78 percent school tax increase, is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in the board's Anna J. Herbert Meeting Room at 669 Ave. A.
An open workshop preceding the meeting will begin at 6 p.m., according to a notice posted on the board's website.
According to state rules, the deadline for the board to adopt the budget is Saturday.
Late this afternoon, Acting board Business Administrator Brian Buckley; board president Joseph Broderick; and board vice president Denis Wilbeck couldn't immediately be reached for comment about what would happen if the nine-member board doesn't pass the budget this week.
Board member Ava Finnerty didn't know exactly what would happen but said today that the responsibility for passing the local budget would be passed onto either the county or the state.
On the topic of possible revisions to the budget, the retired Bayonne High School English teacher said she isn't aware of any revisions having been made at this time.
Finnerty added that she does not want to see school taxes go any higher than the originally proposed 2.78 percent.
The school tax increase included in the budget as it was introduced would amount to a $1.7 million increase, which Bayonne Chief Financial Officer Terrence Malloy has said would translate to a $97 annual increase for the average city home.
Finnerty said she supports combing through the budget to eliminate or reduce line items that aren't essential in order to carve out more money for teachers, who have gone without a new contract since last July.
"A school system is only as good as its teachers," she said.
Finnerty was endorsed by the Bayonne teachers union during November's school board election. She has denied that the endorsement has any influence on her decision-making as a board member.
The school budget failed to pass Thursday after board members came to a 4-4 tie vote on whether to adopt it.
Finnerty, Carol Cruden, Barry Kushnir and Christopher Munoz voted against the budget. Broderick, Wilbeck, Mikel Lawandy and Theodore Garelick voted for it. Mary Jane Desmond was absent.
A resident's property tax in Bayonne pays school, municipal, county and open space taxes, which last year made up about 41, 42, 16 and 0.2 percent of total property taxes paid, respectively, Malloy has said. The exact breakdown of that mix changes from year to year.
The city's school board changed from an appointed board to an elected board following a referendum in November 2014. The first wave of elected members -- the first to be elected in more than 35 years -- took office earlier this year.
Jonathan Lin may be reached at jlin@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @jlin_jj. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.