WOLFE: LATEST AUDITS IN ABBOTT DISTRICTS HIGHLIGHT IMPEDIMENTS TO SCHOOL FUNDING EQUITY

WOLFE HAD URGED PROPERTY TAX COMMITTEE TO LOOK INTO WASTEFUL SPENDING IN ABBOTT DISTRICTS February 1, 2007
Assemblyman David Wolfe/732-840-9028
Assembly Republican Office/609-292-5339

Assemblyman David Wolfe today said that the latest audits showing millions of dollars of wasteful and possibly criminal spending in the Newark, Camden, Jersey City and Paterson school districts demonstrate the toll that such waste is taking on the state's ability to provide equitable funding to all school districts.

"During the school funding property tax reform hearings last summer I stressed to my colleagues that any discussion of school funding reform must take into account the enormous amounts of waste in the Abbott Districts," said Wolfe, R-Ocean, Monmouth. "If we could eliminate wasteful spending in those districts, it would allow us to send more money to suburban and rural districts that have been shortchanged for the past five years."

An audit report by the state Department of Education released this week looked into spending in four state-operated Abbott school districts -- Camden, Newark, Jersey City and Paterson. The reports uncovered more than $15 million in wasteful spending including some of the following:

-- Camden and Newark paying a combined $640,000 to 38 employees who had been dead for years. One employee who died in 1974 has been issued $130,000 in checks since that time.
-- In Newark, a $1,795 jukebox -- for purposes not exactly clear -- and a $29,995 Jeep Grand Cherokee with leather interior for the superintendent.
-- 966 instances of the Camden school district overpaying vendors on purchase order amounts, including paying $953,000 for photocopying equipment with a purchase order price of $55,000.
-- $9,300 to defend a former superintendent from a state criminal investigation.

Wolfe, a member of the Joint Legislative Committee on Public School Funding Reform, opened a September 5 meeting by requesting that the committee schedule a meeting to address concerns about wasteful spending in the 31 Abbott Districts. That hearing never took place.

"It was, and still is, my belief that we cannot reach a well-informed decision on how to revamp our school funding formula without first understanding how these dollars are being spent by the districts," Wolfe said. "This audit report demonstrates exactly why this is the case."

Wolfe said that for far too long the state has been shipping millions of dollars into poorly managed Abbott districts, while freezing aid to suburban and rural districts. This has contributed to the current property tax crisis in those suburban and rural towns.

"If we want to restore equity to the school funding formula and have sufficient funds to support all of our school districts, we need to crack down on this waste and abuse," Wolfe said. "The millions wasted in these districts could have been used to provide additional support to those districts who have had their aid frozen since 2002."

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