Public Hearings Coming For 2022 West Orange Town, School Budgets
WEST ORANGE, NJ – The school and municipal budgets in West Orange are nearing the finish line, with public hearings for both scheduled for Monday, May 9.
Property taxes in New Jersey are made up of three parts: school, municipal and county. Here’s how that broke down in West Orange last year:
- School – 61.1%
- Municipal – 25.7%
- County – 13.2%
TOWN BUDGET
A public hearing for the 2022 West Orange municipal budget was originally scheduled for May 3, but was postponed when a council member became ill, according to the town clerk’s office.
A public hearing for the town budget will now be held on Monday, May 9. The hearing will take place at the municipal building, 66 Main Street.
No information about the tax impact of the budget or revenue / expenditures was available on the municipal website as of Friday. A town spokesperson referred Patch to the municipal finance department for details; we will update this article with any reply we receive.
SCHOOL BUDGET
The West Orange Public School District got an unexpected boost from Gov. Phil Murphy’s proposed state aid figures. But there will still be a tax increase for local homeowners as part of the 2022-23 proposed budget, administrators said earlier this spring.
The West Orange Board of Education held a meeting on March 24 to discuss the upcoming school budget. See the district’s preliminary budget presentation here, or watch the video below.
According to the figures, there will be a 2.42 percent impact to the school portion of a West Orange homeowner’s property taxes. This would mean a $ 217 hike for the average annual tax bill of a home valued at $ 336,282.
The proposed budget includes all current staff, and all instructional, extracurricular and athletic programs. It also includes 2.4 million for capital improvement projects. District officials noted they will utilize 1.22 million of the banked cap, an unused tax levy for use in the next three budget years. Read More: West Orange School Budget Has Tax Hike, Despite State Aid Boost
District administrators are still working on the final version of the school budget, a spokesperson told Patch on Tuesday.
A public hearing is scheduled for Monday, May 9. Board meetings are held at the Library Media Center at West Orange High School, 51 Conforti Avenue.