Homeowners in the Toms River Regional School district are about to get slammed with as much as a 16% property tax hike after the New Jersey Department of Education blocked the district’s Chapter 9 bankruptcy plan and approved a budget for the 2025-2026 school year.
This new increase is on top of the 9.3% increase approved last year, which also required the rare state intervention.
In a statement, the the state DOE blamed the district failing to adopt a budget in a timely manner.
“This troubling pattern indicates deeper and systemic concerns about the ability of the Board and district administrators to meet their most basic responsibilities,” Susan Naples, the acting Ocean County Schools Executive Superintendent, wrote.
The district had submitted a final budget in May and that budget had received the state’s approval. But the Toms River board never formally voted to approve the $293.5 million budget because it objected to the 12.9 percent tax increase.
Toms River has been dealing with a decrease in school aid since the 2017-2018 school year, when the controversial S2 school funding law went into effect, with the district experiencing an astonishing $175 million in combined cuts since then.
Over that time span, the district eliminated about 250 jobs, sold land and buildings, cut school programs and increased class size.
The planned tax increase is expected to raise an additional $22.3 million for the district.
The district is also suing the state and was planning on filing for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection, but that move was also blocked by the state.
According to the budget approved by the state, Toms River residents will see a 12.1% increase, or about $41.50 per month or $498 per year for a property assessed at $448,400, the median value in Toms River.
In Beachwood, which is also served by Toms River Regional, homeowners will see a 16.4% increase.
Toms River Regional is one of the largest school districts in New Jersey, with about 14,500 students enrolled in 18 facilities.
Toms River is crashing before our very eyes..no longer the gem of Ocean County
Why does Lakewood get never ending loans and yet everyone else gets nothing but a higher tax bill. Why Lakewood residents not also forcefully taxed more??????????
Unbelievable how much we have to pay for them schools that we dont even use and now we have to pay even more for THEM ;( and that’s ontop of paying for our jewish schools tuition. where are all the Hackers and shvitzers ?
Who is THEM? The students that attend the schools? Those students who become the servicemen and women who keep us safe? Or who become police and firefighters? Doctors and nurses?
Remember Dave, YOU came to a township largely reliant on a public school system and YOU are partly to blame.
Imagine if a group of non Jewish families move to Deal and try to establish a public school system. THEY (non Jewish) are creating a burden on Deal residents.
Its comments like yours that help create division… remember that
Excellent!
This is ridiculous!! We have to pay for Jewish school tuition and now this when our own children dont even attend these schools. Time to send our kids to public school and see how fast the government steps in.
Catholic school families pay tuition for Catholic schools and they pay taxes.
Chaya, let’s not make such irresponsible comments. Stop perpetuating division between us and them
And maybe stop saying us and them. It’s offensive for both sides.
I think you’d find wonderful people and all of our children would learn how to respect each other more. When I was in public school I attended religious classes in the evening.
Toms River does not have to raise taxes. Tell the state to give Toms River a loan, and do not take NO for an answer. Tell the state it has given Lakewood millions of dollars in school loans over the past number of years so why should Toms River be treated differently.
Correct.
Isn’t there a 2 percentage limit raise in property taxes per year? So how can they raise it to much in one time?
Sshhh. Coming soon to Lakewood BOE. We owe the state millions of dollars. The formula is broken and there is lots of waste of our tax dollars. The BOE needs to get it together ASAP.
Who is THEM? The students that attend the schools? Those students who become the servicemen and women who keep us safe? Or who become police and firefighters? Doctors and nurses?
No, THEM are the illegals that overrun and break the system. They dont pay property tax and live multiple families on one property. That’s the issue.
There are a few reasons why a school doesn’t have money
1) People dont pay
2) Too many properties or other liabilities vs how many students
3) fraud
You have all 3
FYI you have no idea what your talking about
If people rent their housing, they don’t pay property tax. The Landlord is supposed to if it’s a legal rental. That is not on the family renting. It’s the owner of the premises.
The issue is NJ government, it is a total mess, instead of fixing their problems, it easier to just forward bills to residents.
Toms River is a mess, quality of life has deteriorated over the last couple years. And shame on theses elected school board members who just spend spend spend ! If this has been a problem since Chris Christie you should have addressed the spending over last few years. You treat it like your own personal budget, if you don’t have it you don’t spend it ! Ritaco may have skimmed a few bucks , but we didn’t have this mess !
There’s likely a tremendous amount of waste because it’s government funds being misused. We should get a breakdown of how every penny is spent. A completely transparent breakdown before anymore funds are allocated from taxpayers.