TRENTON – Senator John H. Adler, the Senate’s leading advocate for school reforms, today said the efficiencies being advanced by a joint legislative panel he co-chairs must be followed by additional spending cuts to avoid tax hikes.
“We need more action to end the property tax crisis,” said Senator Adler, D-Cherry Hill. “We need to keep pressing ahead for more efficiencies, more spending cuts and more ways to eliminate waste.”
Senator Adler, the Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on Public School Funding Reform, commended the panel’s work over the last three months in assessing how to improve local and state spending so children can receive a quality education their parents can afford. Its 28 reform recommendations have led to a half a dozen legislative proposals.
“It’s clear that we’ve just scratched the surface in our efforts to change a culture of spending that’s driving up our property taxes,” Senator Adler said. “We found some good ways to save money, but we’ve got a long way to go.”
The committee reviewed proposals now awaiting legislative action to enhance accountability in local school districts, eliminate unneeded State mandates and create a workable structure on the State level to monitor local school spending.