Wayne Schools Approve $189.6 Million Budget for 2024-2025

WAYNE, NJ – During this past school board meeting, Business Administrator for the Wayne Township Public Schools, Bill Moffit gave an overview presentation of the schools’ current financial position along with a proposed $189.6 Million school budget for the next fiscal year. A vote was taken, and the budget was passed - which includes an 8.88 tax point increase.

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A Slide from the Wayne Township Public Schools Presentation on the 2024-2025 Approved Budget

The originally proposed tentative budget in March was for $190,820,916, but this was reduced by $1,219,106, so the budget that was just approved totals $189,601,810.

RELATED STORY: Wayne Schools Approve 'Concerning' 2024-2025 Tentative Budget

This reduction did not alter the total tax levy increase that was proposed and then approved on Thursday night. The total amount of the tax levy for this budget is $171,653,169, which is a 2.48% increase from last year’s tax levy of $167,494,264.

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For property owners in Wayne, this amounts to an increase of 8.88 tax points. For the average assessed value of a residential unit in Wayne ($230,435), this means an increase of $204 per year in taxes.

To figure the approximate increase in taxes for your home, take the assessed value of your property, divide that by 10,000 and multiply by 8.88.

For example, a residential unit with a $500,000 assessed value (this is not the actual market rate value of your property, but the number used for tax purposes – which is generally much lower), would divide that total by 10,000 to get 50, then multiply that by 8.88 to get your approximate increase for the Board of Education taxes: $444.00.

A Slide from the Wayne Township Public Schools Presentation on the 2024-2025 Approved Budget

One bit of good news is that the debt incurred by the schools for the construction of Anthony Wayne Middle School has just been paid off. This means that taxpayers will see a reduction of approximately $116.00 - for the average assessed value household. Because of this, the expected net increase in taxes on the average home in Wayne will be about $88.00.

BOE Trustee Ryan Battershill made an interesting point during the meeting, concerning the recently failed referendum, which would have added $370 in BOE taxes for the average assessed value household. This $164 difference (from the $204 increase in this budget) would’ve changed things drastically for taxpayers and for the schools themselves.

A Slide from the Wayne Township Public Schools Presentation on the 2024-2025 Approved Budget

“I just want to make it clear that we have got about $17 million for facilities that is budgeted over this year,” he said. “And that is just to get through the health and safety bear minimum things that we need to do with the facilities over the year ahead to manage and maintain the school system. We’ve stopped the next generation science labs and not doing anything above and beyond that we could have been done, and that is still an impact of $204.00 a year to the taxpayer. We can't phase this in over a number of years because we have to make that money straight away through the tax levy. Whereas, through the referendum we would’ve been able to get a lot of things done, we would’ve been able to move faster at that period of time and we would’ve been able to phase in that change to the taxpayer over a number of years.”

His point was that the school district now has to offer less to students and still has to increase taxes. Where, with the referendum, the increase in taxes would’ve been phased in over time and given the schools “everything” they needed to improve facilities across the board.

Now, things must be done piece-meal, when it can be afforded in the budget, with 100% of the costs falling to the taxpayers, and likely increasing taxes every year to make repairs and modernization possible. In the long run, the referendum would’ve likely cost the taxpayers less over time, according to Battershill.

A Slide from the Wayne Township Public Schools Presentation on the 2024-2025 Approved Budget

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