Cape May Taxpayers Assn. Hosts Forum Explaining Dec. 9 School Funding Issue

CAPE MAY – The Taxpayers Association of Cape May sponsored a forum Nov. 21 on the school funding controversy that has been at the heart of Cape May politics for almost two years. Deputy Mayor Jack Wichterman, who will leave office in January, chaired the forum attended by about 80 residents at Convention Hall.
The forum was also streamed via the Internet for the benefit of citizens who could not attend. Supporting Wichterman in responding to questions were two members of the city’s outside legal team, including lead attorney Vito Gagliardi, and Mayor Edward Mahaney Jr.
Wichterman started the meeting with a review of the history of this issue. Pointing to the establishment of Lower Cape May Regional school system in the 1950s, carrying the story to the change in funding formula from one based on per head contributions to one founded on equalized property values in 1975, and finally covering the current struggle for a “fairer” funding system which dates to 2012.
Embedded in that history were earlier failed attempts to change the funding arrangement.
Wichterman has been the champion of a change in the funding formula and has made it his signature issue as a council member. Along with his recital of the issue’s past, Wichterman noted with pride and gratitude the recent vote in favor of a change in response to the ballot issue in the Nov. 4 election.
Although the vote in favor of a change was overwhelmed by the much larger vote against centered in Lower Township, the voting results in city made clear that within the municipality this is an issue around which a significant consensus has coalesced.
Since that same election changed the future face of the council, producing three members for seats that were not contested by incumbents, the vote was the first opportunity the residents had to signal their will for the benefit of the new council members.
Had the vote not been strongly in favor of a change, it is unlikely that the new council, when it convenes in January, would have continued to pursue an alteration in the formula. Now it is hard to see how council can easily walk away from something voters so emphatically endorsed.
Context for the discussion was structured around the wording of a public issue that will be presented to the voters in the three district municipalities that are parties to the regional system.
That vote will be on whether or not to allow the City of Cape May to withdraw from the LCMR system. The special election will be Dec. 9.
To pass, the referendum would have to gain majority support in all three municipalities, Cape May, Lower Township, and West Cape May. There is little likelihood that such could be the result. All along, Wichterman has been candid that the steps being taken, even with no chance of success, were necessary prelude to the city taking the issue to court.
The facts of the struggle are well known to city residents and were laid out by Wichterman in a brief fact sheet that accompanied announcement of the forum. “The average tax levy for districts in LCMR is less than $12,000 per pupil,” the fact sheet explains, but “residents of Cape May pay almost $100,000 per pupil” based on the current formula. It is that basic perceived inequity that is at the heart of a struggle that has inflamed feelings in the lower cape.
Public meetings in Lower Township have urged strong opposition to Cape May’s moves.
As one resident framed the question during the forum, “Is this about education or is it about taxes?” Answering his own question, he noted, “I think it’s about taxes.”
Repeatedly Wichterman stated that the goal is a redistribution of the tax burden necessary to support the school district. “We don’t want to change the education at all,” he noted.
The fact sheet clearly stated that the “same children will continue to be educated in the same buildings, with the same teachers” and it also states the “LCMR’s budget will not be impacted.”
The city would simply enter into a sending-and-receiving relationship with LCMR. As Wichterman and his supporters see it, the goal is a more reasonable sharing of the burden of educating the students; one that they admit will result in higher taxes in Lower Township.
There were those who spoke in support of the current arrangement. Their argument, concisely stated, is that education is important, the current formula works, and most residents of Cape May knew what the taxes were when they bought into the community.
Placing a greater share of the burden on Lower Township puts that funding at greater risk, if not immediately, then in the longer term. The subtext is that the burden is best left were it can be the most easily afforded. That was not a claim without challenge, as others pointed out that the average income of year-around residents of the city is very similar to that of Lower Township. Wichterman pointed out more than once that “higher property values only benefit you if you are going to sell and move somewhere else.”
The majority of attendees, however, spoke in favor of a change and when one thanked Wichterman for his continuous leadership in the struggle, the room gave him a strong round of applause.
The overwhelming sentiment was that Cape May should continue its efforts to change the funding relationship with LCMR. By the time those new members take their place on the council, the Special Election will be over and most likely Cape May will have lost.
Gagliardi, who has represented communities in similar situations across the state, feels Cape May can be successful in getting some change to the funding formula through the courts.
The current council, of which two members will remain in January, has been unanimous in its support for the actions Wichterman has championed.
The burden of decision will rest with the three new members early in the new year. During their campaigns all of them avoided taking a specific position on the issue but each also promised to listen to the will of the voters.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.