Scrooge threatened to ruin our Christmas with $650 hike in school taxes for 30 years

VOTE NO: The irresponsible Hackensack Board of Education is seeking voter approval to borrow nearly $170 million to build a new junior high school and parking garage, and upgrade six other schools in the district. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- I was momentarily puzzled when I received three mail-in ballots the day before Christmas.

What election could possibly be scheduled for January?

Then, I remembered the irresponsible Hackensack Board of Education is seeking voter approval for nearly $170 million in school construction, including a new junior high and a 350-space parking garage (to be built near the high school at a total cost of $101,572,500).

Board officials and the superintendent of schools are keeping their fingers crossed for a big snowstorm on Jan. 22 -- the date for the special school election -- to further discourage the city's apathetic, lazy or stupid voters.

Mail in your vote

But if you're smart, you'll apply for a vote-by-mail ballot like the ones my wife and I and our college-age son received the day before Christmas, and will use to vote a resounding "no."

If you go to the polls on Jan. 22, you'll be confronted by a ballot with a blizzard of small print laying out the $169,904,226 in proposed school construction and upgrades.

Even "door-hardware replacement" and "roof exhaust fan" upgrades are listed for various schools. 

Still, I see no mention of adding solar panels or using geothermal energy to power the proposed new school -- and save tens of thousands of dollars in utility costs in the coming decade.

30-year tax hike

After you plow through all that type, you'll learn the "average [property] tax impact" would be $308.66 a year for 30 years on a home with an average assessed value of $245,431.

But my home in the Fairmount section is assessed at $561,000, so I would have to fork over more than twice as much each year for 30 years -- roughly $650 a year or $19,500 over 30 years.

Rubber stamp

For years, only a small number of the more than 22,000 registered voters in Hackensack have turned out for April school board elections, leading to repeated approvals of annual school budget and property tax hikes.

About 45% of every property tax bill in the city goes to support the schools, yet apathetic, lazy or stupid voters stay home year after year, guaranteeing automatic approval of higher local taxes.

Many of these same morons bitch and moan about high property taxes, even as they do nothing to stop the annual increases imposed by school board officials. 

Much of those increases are for hikes in administrative salaries, said to be among the highest in the state.

Read: Enrollment hike doesn't justify new school

Read: Zisas still control Hackensack school board

READ IT AND WEEP: Don't bother to plow through all the type you'll find on your mail-in ballot or in the voting booth on Jan. 22. Just say "no."

MAIL-IN BALLOT: You can apply for a mail-in ballot in person at the Bergen County Clerk's Office in Hackensack up to 3 p.m. on the day before the Jan. 22 election or by mail not less than 7 days before the election.