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Budget Timing It is said that timing is everything in life, and those preparing school budgets this year would certainly agree. As if it isn’t difficult enough to walk the line between stakeholders and prepare a budget that is at least moderately satisfactory to all, New Jersey school district business administrators and their staffs are faced with a series of incompatible deadlines that will only add to their angst. Our new governor has been given an extension on his annual budget recommendations, a favor traditionally granted to new governors. As a result the address will likely be given March 21 instead of in February. State aid figures for school districts are tied to that address, meaning that there will be far less time to incorporate those numbers in school budgets. The Department of Education normally forwards the award amounts to school districts within two days after the address. Instead, the department can now only issue approximate directives to waiting districts. To make matters worse, the 2006-07 spending growth limitation, or budget cap, is not yet known to districts. The current cap of the greater of 2.5% or the rate of inflation is the last known rule. Usually the Department of Education notified school districts of the budget cap by late fall but districts are still waiting now. The other shoe dropping is the election and school budget vote, as described by our own BA Steffi Jo Decasas: “Last year’s election date was April 19th. This year the date is April 18th. Last year the budget hearing had to take place between March 22nd and March 31st and the budget had to be advertised in the newspaper 4 days prior to the hearing” In short, Steffi Jo and others in her position will be scrambling to make all the numbers fit during a quick succession of deadlines that do not allow for adequate pre-planning. In a missive to members, the NJ Association of School Business Officials (NJASBO) describes the issue in this series of events: "Give or take, here's what would have to happen:
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