New Jersey Administrative Code › Title 6A - EDUCATION › Chapter 23A - FISCAL ACCOUNTABILITY, EFFICIENCY AND BUDGETING PROCEDURES › Subchapter 12 - TAX LEVY GROWTH LIMITATION; SEPARATE VOTER APPROVAL › Section 6A:23A-12.1 - Voter authorization to exceed tax levy limitation; separate proposal(s)

Current through Register Vol. 56, No. 14, July 15, 2024
(a) A district board of education may put to
				voters the matter of exceeding the tax levy limitation, pursuant to
				N.J.S.A.
				18A:7F-5.d(9) and 39.c.
1. The proposal(s) to increase the tax levy
				shall be approved if a majority of the people voting at the school election
				votes in the affirmative or, when applicable, approved by a majority of a
				quorum of the board of school estimate.
2. A proposal(s) submitted to voters shall
				not include any program(s) or service(s) necessary for students to achieve the
				New Jersey Student Learning Standards.
3. A proposal(s) submitted to voters shall
				not include any capital outlay(s) necessary for health and safety reasons or
				that constitutes eligible costs of a T&E construction project.
4. A proposal(s) submitted to voters shall
				not include any existing program(s) or service(s) included in the prebudget
				year except when documented to the executive county superintendent's
				satisfaction that reallocation is required to maintain or achieve T&E or
				that such programs and services are not necessary for T&E.
5. A district board of education shall frame
				each question to request sufficient funds to carry out the specific purpose(s)
				contained therein. A district board of education shall include in the base
				budget only funds for purposes that can be implemented without the approval of
				a separate question.
6. All
				proposals to increase the tax levy shall include interpretive statements
				specifically identifying the program purposes for which the proposed funds will
				be used and a clear statement on whether approval will affect only the current
				year or result in a permanent increase in the levy.
7. The executive county superintendent may
				prohibit the submission of a separate proposal(s) to voters or board of school
				estimate if he or she determines the school district has not implemented all
				potential efficiencies in the administrative operations of the school district,
				when the efficiencies would eliminate the need for the raising of additional
				general fund tax levy.
8. Any
				rejection by voters of a school district's separate proposal(s) shall be final
				and conclusive with no appeal. The municipal governing body(ies) or board of
				school estimate shall not authorize the raising of additional tax levy upon
				rejection by voters of a school district's separate proposal(s).
9. A district board of education shall not
				modify the base budget to execute such purposes pursuant to (a)8 above, except
				as allowed in (a)13 below.
10. A
				district board of education shall use amounts approved by voters or the board
				of school estimate exclusively for the purpose(s) contained in the associated
				question.
i. If multiple purposes are
				approved, a district board of education may approve a transfer of amounts among
				purposes, if necessary, as long as all purposes in the statement originally
				approved by voters or board of school estimate can be completed.
11. A district board of education
				shall maintain a separate accounting of expenditures for each purpose, and
				shall expend or encumber approved amounts by the end of the school year. For
				any unexpended or unencumbered balances, the district board of education shall
				either anticipate such funds as a part of the designated general fund balance
				of the subsequent school year budget, or reserve and designate such funds in
				the second subsequent school year budget.
12. A district board of education shall
				submit to the Commissioner amounts approved by voters or the board of school
				estimate as part of the final overall budget certified for taxes.
13. Purposes that were rejected by voters may
				be implemented in the budget year only through a donation or contribution from
				an external source other than the district board of education and only if
				implementation will not require any funding by the school district in the
				budget year and/or subsequent budget years.