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July 21 to 27
Per-Student Spending
The 2024-2025 school year budgets for 14 county school districts show each district’s per-pupil cost calculations. This number represents the district’s budgetary spending for its reported enrollment.
The Herald has graphed the data in descending order of pupil spending for the 2024-2025 school year. The list of districts includes each of the 13 operating municipal school districts and the one regional district, Lower Cape May Regional, which serves select grades for Cape May City, West Cape May and Lower Township. The graph also shows the change in costs per pupil over five budget years.
Note that the districts that are wholly contained on the mainland, the four townships and Woodbine, are at the bottom of the spending. That is partially explained by the lower enrollments at the island districts.
The differences are not fully explained by the presence of high schools in select districts since the largest of the four municipal high schools is within the bottom four townships, Middle Township High School, with the lowest overall district spending. The remaining three districts with high schools, Ocean City, Wildwood and LCMR, are spending 30% or more above the Middle Township average.
Some island school districts are paying twice as much or more per pupil as mainland districts. In part it is the cost of independence that may be harder to justify as sources of state and federal funds shift.
Fixed costs that do not change dramatically with lower enrollment and, on the flip side, the benefits of economies of scale explain some of the variability, but not all.
Each school district has a superintendent regardless of the size of its enrollment. An earlier Herald analysis showed salaries of $130,000 plus, up to $208,000 in Middle Township, across 13 school superintendents in the county. A combined total of more than $2 million per year is spent on base salaries for that position.
As Trenton lawmakers reconsider the state school funding formula yet again, as critical variables like health plan premiums continue to soar and as federal funding for K-12 public education moves into uncharted and unpredictable territory, it might be time to consider the per-pupil costs, looking at what works to lower them and what drives some of them so high.
Lifeguard Pensions
The Office of the State Comptroller released a report July 23 pointing to underfunding in six lifeguard pension programs. In Cape May County, Sea Isle City was listed as a town with an underfunded program, while Cape May, North Wildwood, Wildwood and Ocean City were said to lack required actuarial calculations, making their liability status uncertain.
The report does more than just point to the status of the underfunding in the local pension funds. Acting Comptroller Kevin Walsh advocates for scrapping the system entirely. Walsh says the law that established the pension requirement “saddles a small number of municipalities with a significant financial burden, and it just doesn’t make sense to give lifelong pensions for seasonal jobs.”
The Lifeguard Pension Law enacted in 1928 requires certain “fourth-class” cities to provide a pension plan for lifeguards, allowing them to retire at half-pay at age 45 after 20 years of service. Most lifeguards never approach the level of service requirements in the law, but some do.
The report found that six communities, of which Cape May County’s Sea Isle City was one, have combined underfunding in their pension plans of $34.2 million.
Sea Isle Mayor Len Desiderio spoke of the comptroller report in his July 24 mayor’s message to residents. Desiderio said the city’s pension fund is “NOT underfunded.” He added that the fund has $1.2 million in it, with an annual outlay of “only about $20,000.”
The mayor said the report notes that cities impacted by the pension law can pass a resolution that “authorizes lessor annual contributions than are mandated by the life guard pension law.” He told taxpayers that “that action will take place in Sea Isle in the near future.”
The report identified 206 individuals receiving lifeguard pensions in 2022. It found that the average annual draw on a life guard pension is $9,100, with the highest being $60,900.
PJM Letters
Electricity grid operator PJM Interconnection’s capacity auction resulted in a record high price per megawatt-day for the 2026-2027 delivery year. It surpassed the record set last year by 22%.
The results last week suggest that high electricity rates are likely to be with us for at least the next few years as investment drives new supply sources.
Politicians, utility owners, regulatory bodies, consumer advocates, clean energy groups and energy industry pundits are all engaged in the blame game following an auction where prices continued to climb. One set of numbers gives insight in how our electricity energy universe has changed.
This auction saw an increase of $1.4 billion in the total capacity cost for the PJM grid. Last year the total capacity price for the PJM area jumped from $2.2 billion to $14.7 billion. This year the increase went from the $14.7 billion to $16.1 billion. While some like PJM argue that this year’s impact is “modest,” what is astounding is to go from $2.2 billion to $16.1 billion in two years.
In the midst of the reactions to the announced results, two letters were distributed that told contradictory stories.
In one, Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-2) condemned Gov. Phil Murphy and the state’s Democrats for trying to shift blame to PJM – a regional operator that covers 13 states including New Jersey. For Van Drew, the pricing crisis in which we find ourselves is the result of “failed policies” that weakened the state’s electrical supply base even in the face of soaring demand.
In the second correspondence, 84 organizations from across the PJM region sent an open letter to the PJM board of managers listing a series of what the letter called key reform initiatives to make the interconnection process for new supply sources faster. Without the initiatives, the letter says, prices are likely to remain high until the 2030s.
Just a sampling of the New Jersey organizations included in the 84 signatories are Environment New Jersey, New Jersey Policy Perspective, New Jersey League of Conservation Voters, Sierra Club of New Jersey and New Jersey Sustainable Business Network.
The message from all side since the auction results were announced is a simple one: Prices are high and will remain high until new electricity generation helps the supply of electricity catch up to the demand for it.
Week in Review
*If you use an online service for your accommodations in America’s Greatest Family Resort – aka Ocean City – it is likely to cost you more than it used to: The City Council has approved a 3% occupancy tax on short-term rentals booked through online travel services like Airbnb.
*The state Department of Environmental Protection has filed a notice of substantial change to its proposed Resilient Environments and Landscapes rules it published in the New Jersey Register on Aug. 5, 2024.
*A gasoline delivery tanker spilled an estimated 800 gallons of the fuel during a delivery to the Wawa at 418 W. Rio Grande Ave. in Wildwood on Sunday, July 20, fuel that ultimately ended up in the back bay.
*Dr. Mehmet Oz, the nation’s new Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services administrator, visited Atlantic City on Friday, July 18, to tour the town and its AtlantiCare facilities, and to take part in a roundtable discussion on health-care issues.
*A new location and design for the proposed USS Jacob Jones Memorial is under consideration in Cape May City.
*Former Avalon Police Sgt. Stephen Bowers has filed suit against the borough, claiming he was not guilty of department charges filed against him.
*Proposed legislation would prohibit municipalities from requiring beach tags for access to the beach below the mean high tide line for recreational purposes like fishing or surfing.
*This year electricity capacity held by PJM Interconnection, the grid operator for New Jersey, saw the total capacity price price jump by $1.4 billion.
*The Stone Harbor Borough Council on July 15 introduced two bond ordinances that authorize $7.2 million in general fund debt and $3.2 million in debt for the borough’s water/sewer utility to fund 2025 capital plan projects.
*Gretta, one of the most senior members of the Cape May County Zoo’s zebra herd, has died, officials said.
*Democratic Assembly candidate Carolyn Rush asked the county commissioners to clarify a comment about homelessness made at a previous meeting.
*At its meeting July 21, the Middle Township Committee did something it has not needed to do for 15 years: appoint a tax assessor.
*The Middle Township Committee has asked the Planning Board to investigate establishing two contiguous redevelopment zones in Whitesboro.
*Noted sign maker Brian DeMusz, who would have turned 65 on Aug. 9, died at this home on July 20 after a tough battle with cancer.
*Vultures are nature’s vacuum cleaners and help stem the spread of disease, such as rabies, in the animal kingdom.
Spout Off of the Week
If you are a senior, do you remember being dropped off at your town’s library as your mother ran a few errands? It was a small brick building tucked among well-kept homes. It had lemon oiled creaky hardwood floors where you sat and browsed the Nancy Drew books? I looked forward to those weekly visits. I just picked up my brand-new library card today. Different, but so familiar. Thanks for all you are, Avalon Library!
Municipal Employee Health Premiums Surge 36.5%
UPDATE: Coastal Rules Get More Support Than Opposition at DEP Hearing – New Info Added
Audio of the Cape May County Commissioners Meeting
