Voters Flunk Most N.J. School Budgets

CINNAMINSON, N.J. - Homeowners in the Garden State have had enough, and they're saying it with both their signs and their votes.

"I lost my job a year ago. I can't handle a $450 tax increase. I just can't," Cathy Gray, of Cinnaminson, told Fox 29 News on Wednesday morning. "I don't know what planet the New Jersey teachers' union is on, but I gotta get a ticket there because the economic times just don't support what they demand."

Voters in New Jersey made history Tuesday by rejecting a majority of the state's school budgets at the polls for the first time since 1976.

The New Jersey School Boards Association told the Associated Press that 222 of the 537 budgets on ballots Tuesday passed, meaning 315 failed, or 59 percent.

Those failures included 33 budgets out of 39 that were up for votes in Burlington County.

Election officials said voter turnout was higher than normal because of the ongoing fight between Gov. Chris Christie and the teachers' union.

The schools had to come up with spending plans after Christie slashed the education budget. Many districts were already planning layoffs in addition to tax hikes.

Christie said layoffs could be avoided. He urged residents ahead of Tuesday's voting to reject budgets where teachers did not agree to have their salaries frozen and contribute to their health insurance premiums.

But workers in only about a quarter of nearly 600 school districts accepted the governor's plea to make wage concessions to balance the books.

On Wednesday morning, New Jersey Education Association Vice President Wendell Steinhauer reacted to the outcome of Tuesday's votes.

"I don't think it was a referendum on education," Steinhauer said. "What I think it was was a referendum on high property taxes, you know? People don't get a chance to vote on whether they pay taxes or not. You don't get to vote on your income tax. You don't get a say on any of the taxes taken out. So, here was your one chance. And in this economy and with the rhetoric that the governor was throwing around, it's not much of a surprise that it went down like that."

But if the union thought the new governor's popularity was wearing away, it suddenly learned that a strong majority of the state's voters still side with him and his determination to get taxes, spending and school funding all under control – even if it means cutting back in the schools and they're raising the children that attend them, like Gray.

"I want to see some creative ways of maybe bridging that gap," she said. "I'd like to see some compromises, and I'd like to see the New Jersey teachers' union be a little realistic about what the economic conditions can support today. I don't think they are."

One vacant Cinnaminson home with overgrown weeds had a sign outside indicating its owner had been taxed out of town, Fox 29's Steve Keeley reported.

The budgets that failed must now be sent to municipal governing bodies, which can cut down the associated tax hike. Then, schools go back to the drawing board to make the numbers work.