Camden Courier-Post – February 16, 1938
Editorial
The Camden Board of Education, Monday night, adopted a school budget showing a total increase of $135,000.
Commissioner Kobus, president of the board, contends this increase is due almost entirely to the five percent pay-cut restoration for this year and to the addition of 20 teachers and two janitors.
That increase does not conform with the figure which taxpayers have had in mind.
Last December when the board voted to restore an additional five percent of school pay-cuts in 1938, we were told that this would increase the payroll $80,000 — an amount which city finances would stand without increasing the tax rate and therefore an increase which the taxpayers could afford.
Along with this $80,000 increase, however, comes another for $55,000 and whether the city finances will stand this extra expense without increasing taxes is by no means clear. Until that point is clear, there is bound to be public objection to a school budget larger than the taxpayer expected.
The Board of Estimate, which passes on this budget, cannot escape the responsibility for making whatever reductions or alterations are necessary to keep school expense in line with the taxpayers’ ability to pay.
The city tax rate must not go up. That means that the tentative school budget must come down, and the Board of Estimate will have to bring it down.
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