Enrollment hike of 120 students in 4 years doesn't justify building a $97M junior high

The offices of the Hackensack Board of Education and superintendent of schools at 191 Second St.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- When you take a closer look at the proposed $165.1 million building and renovation plan for Hackensack schools, the numbers just don't add up.

A projected enrollment increase and schools that are as much as a century old are the two main reasons cited by school officials to justify the proposal, which will have a tremendous impact on already high property taxes.

Even more troubling is the possibility of holding the referendum on Jan. 22, 2019, when winter weather could discourage many already lazy, apathetic residents from voting to approve or reject the plan.

Past elections

April school board elections usually draw only several hundred people to vote on candidates, and to say "yes" or "no" on the school budget, which accounts for 45% of every home and business owners' property tax bill.

In the April 2017 election, only 3% or 642 of the 21,397 registered voters in Hackensack cast ballots for candidates, and only 341 residents OK'd the $81.2 million tax levy to support a $109 million budget.

This past April 17, when 3 candidates backed by the mayor and City Council ran, turnout was higher -- 1,629 voters cast ballots.

Only 1,142 voted "yes" or "no" on the tax levy, approving the use of $82.8 million in property taxes to support the schools' $117.1 million budget.

Imagine how few would battle January weather to get to the polls and vote in a $165.1 million referendum.

Tax impact

"The tax impact would be decided before the possible January referendum," NorthJersey.com reported on June 30, quoting school board President Lara L. Rodriguez.

Rodriguez also told a reporter that if the referendum passes, it could take up to 8 months for the district to begin the renovations and break ground on the new school and a parking garage, and "we could have the schools open" by September 2021.

Enrollment hike

School officials project they will have to serve 120 more students in 2021-22 than now.

They cite a projected enrollment of 5,834 students in 2021-22, compared to 5,714 in 2017-18.

No mention was made of the 249 students Maywood sends to Hackensack High School, and a possible end to that relationship.

Century old schools

There's no question Hackensack's schools are old and badly in need of renovations and upgrades.

But why did the Board of Education allow them to get that way while raising the school budget every year in the last 10 years -- to where the money spent on schools is now more than the city's own budget?

$165.1M proposal

A new junior high school, with grades 7, 8 and 9, would be built next to the high school at a cost of $97.7 million.

That includes a parking garage for 200 cars to built next to the new school, replacing a high school  parking lot.

Alterations to existing schools would cost about $16.5 million; renovations would cost $17.5 million; upgrades to heating, ventilation and air conditioning would add another $33.4 million -- for a total of $165.1 million.

Taxes -- or the lack of them -- are driving everyone crazy from Hackensack to Alaska

One way to interpret "THE LAST FRONTIER" motto on this standard gold Alaska license plate, which I saw on a tourist bus in August, is that the 49th state is the last frontier for an engaged citizenry. A close second is Hackensack, where lazy, apathetic residents rubber stamp higher and higher budgets from the city's Board of Education every year, driving up property tax bills.

Hackensack schools plan to ask

for your vote on $165M proposal

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- You might think long-suffering New Jersey residents, who pay some of the highest taxes in the nation, would be envious of Alaskans.

Residents of the 49th state pay no state income or sales taxes, and Anchorage, with 304,000 residents in 2014, also doesn't have a sales tax.

Recall the hysterical reaction of some New Jersey residents when Governor Murphy sought to raise the state sales tax to 7% from 6.625%.

The Record of Woodland Park, the local daily newspaper, published a front-page story accusing Murphy of trying to raise taxes on the state's hard-pressed "middle class." 

Yearly dividend

Alaskans also get paid every year from the state-managed Permanent Fund, which is fed by oil revenue and now totals close to $65 billion. 

This year, each resident will receive a dividend of $1,600. 

But "democracy suffers when citizens don't pay [taxes]," says Columnist Charles Wohlforth of the Anchorage Daily News.

In his Aug. 10 column, Wohlforth quoted the late Harvard political scientist Samuel Huntington:

"The lower the level of taxation, the less reason for the public to demand representation. 'No taxation without representation' was a political demand; 'no representation without taxation' is a political reality."

Are taxes good or bad?

In 2004, Michael Ross of UCLA looked at 113 countries over a 27-year period, Wohlforth said:

"People may dislike taxes, and indeed they loathe paying more while receiving less from their governments," wrote Ross, reminding me of how our local property taxes go up and we receive less from our home-rule officials in Hackensack.

For example, my street hasn't been paved in more than 30 years, and other Hackensack streets are in bad shape.

"Ironically this loathing may be a good thing," Ross said.

"In Alaska," the newspaper columnist said, "we've spawned a political class that learned it can get away with just about anything as long as Alaska Permanent Funds payments keep flowing and broad-based taxes such as income or sales taxes are never put in place.

"They've left us worse off in many ways compared to when we stopped paying taxes in the 1980s -- worse education, more crime, stagnant incomes and, perhaps saddest of all, a pervasive sense of scarcity and collective impotence. We've learned as a society not to expect much."

Alaska also has a 7.1% unemployment rate, the highest in the nation, The New York Times reported in August.

Primitive road network

On our vacation in Alaska, we learned the tax-free state has the highest number of licensed pilots, because a primitive road system means many towns can be reached only by air or ferry.

That includes the state capital, Juneau, so residents cannot quickly and effectively mount a protest against state policies or proposed laws, even if they wanted to.

Alaska, our largest state, is said to be 2.5 times the size of Texas, but only 740,000 people live there -- far fewer than in Bergen County. 

There is no sales tax on meals at Simon & Seafort's and other Anchorage restaurants, where dinner for 2 can easily top $100 before the tip. Try the fine-dining restaurant's Alaskan Cod Rockefeller with Roasted Cod, Halibut, Salmon, Clams and Prawns in a rich tomato broth ($30), below.

Taxes going up?

Now, Hackensack residents are facing the prospect of higher local property taxes, if a referendum on a $165.1 million school building plan is approved.

The city Board of Education is proposing to spend $97.7 million to build a new junior high school on a sports field next to Hackensack High School.

The rest of the money -- $67.4 million -- would pay for alterations, renovations, and heating, ventilation and air conditioning upgrades at existing schools.

No date for the referendum has been set, but the schools superintendent's office says the proposal could go on the ballot as early as Jan. 22, 2019.

341 decided budget

Although school taxes account for 45% of the total tax bill paid by home and business owners, Hackensack voters have shown little interest in school board candidates or the proposed budget, and many may be unaware they can vote down the proposed tax levy.

In the April 2017 election, only 3% of the 21,397 voters registered in Hackensack cast ballots, according to Bergen County Clerk John S. Hogan's office. 

Of those 642 voters, only 341 residents, including those who voted by mail-in ballot, approved the $81.2 million tax levy (to support a $109 million budget).

If the referendum on the proposed $165.1 million school building plan is held in the middle of January, will even 341 people brave the weather to vote on it?