Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts, Jr.

ROBERTS: ULTRA-LOW SCHOOL ELECTION TURNOUTS
BEAR WATCHING

(TRENTON) -- Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts Jr. today said low voter turnout and high budget-passage rates in this year's school elections could rekindle legislative interest in eliminating school budget referendums and changing the annual date for electing local school board members.

FOR RELEASE: April 18, 2006
CONTACT: Joe Donnelly
(609) 292-7065

ROBERTS: ULTRA-LOW SCHOOL ELECTION TURNOUTS
BEAR WATCHING

(TRENTON) -- Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts Jr. today said low voter turnout and high budget-passage rates in this year's school elections could rekindle legislative interest in eliminating school budget referendums and changing the annual date for electing local school board members.

"New Jersey's school elections increasingly have all the earmarks of an exercise in futility," said Roberts (D-Camden). "The numbers repeatedly tell the same story: few voters participate in these elections and the budget votes are little more than a fait accompli in most communities."

Roberts said the trends of virtually meaningless budget referendums and low voter participation rates demonstrate that reforms are needed in the antiquated school election system. Roberts said he has an "intensified interest" in the results of tonight's school election because he is contemplating the possibility of making school election reforms a component of a package of bills he is assembling to achieve property tax savings through local government service sharing strategies and other efficiencies.

School budget votes are effectively non-binding. Defeated proposals only require a review by municipal governing bodies, which are not mandated to make changes or cuts before enacting a spending plan. Even if municipal officials were to reduce a defeated school budget, current law allows school districts to appeal the outcome to the state's education commissioner, who can reverse the changes.

Roberts said continuous low-voter turnouts -- roughly 15 percent over the past decade -- could reignite discussions about moving elections for school board members to November, when turnout would be much higher.

Roberts noted that an increasing number of newspaper editorials have voiced support for changing the school elections process. For example, The Star-Ledger of Newark on Monday called the school votes "make-believe democracy."

Other newspaper editorial boards and columnists have crusaded for school election reforms for years.

"These April school elections may be more costly than they are worth," said Roberts. "If today's results are in line with previous trends, we will need to give serious consideration to changes that would make our school elections system more meaningful and relevant."

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