Following a township council candidates’ call for residents to vote down the school budget, West Windsor’s residents did just the opposite.##M:[more]## A low turnout of voters approved the budget, but by the slimmest margin of the election. With 859 yes votes, the budget passed over 764 no votes.
The vote came five days after the Trenton Times reported that two West Windsor council members running for re-election said they would trim the school budget if it were voted down. During a debate at the Village Grand on Thursday, April 12, Franc Gambatese said, “”I’m not voting for the budget so I can have a crack at it.””
Gambatese did not return calls for comment following the passing of the budget.
Charles Morgan, who was reported to be the other candidate in favor of voting down the budget, said later that that was not his position. “”I was answering a question about what Council could do to affect the School Budget,”” said Morgan. “”I was saying that the Council has the power to craft changes but I didn’t say that Council ‘should’ shave the school budget. I went on to say that any attempt by Council to do so would be futile because we would be overruled by Trenton.””
The Times later printed a retraction.
WW-P Superintendent of finance Larry Shanok, who has engineered five consecutive passing budgets, said: “”It’s disappointing to hear that there might be opposition to the budget, particularly since there were opportunities all throughout the budget process for objections to be raised. We had meetings with both townships as well as public hearings on each part of the budget, and no one raised any objections. We also had a meeting with legislators and administrators from both townships, and no one raised any questions about the budget at that time.””
Shanok pointed out that the school board’s budget increase this year was 4.3 percent. That figure lower is significantly lower than the six percent increase of the West Windsor municipal budget for 2008. “”It’s disappointing to hear that someone may have said that because they felt they needed to take a position that night,”” said Shanok.
