Taxpayer association sign vandalized four weeks before school vote

wantage - Ann Smolowitz was horrified last Tuesday night when someone knocked over the Sussex-Wantage Taxpayers Association sign that stands on her property at Giovanni's Restaurant in Wantage. Fellow association member Rudy Solar helped her re-erect the sign later in the day. But on Thursday night, the same thing happened. State police are investigating what seems to be an act of vandalism. Smolowitz and Solar think the person who ran over and destroyed the sign did so to oppose the aims of the grassroots organization to which they belong. The association was formed to combat Sussex Borough and Wantage's $20-million school referendum, which voters turned down in March. Had the referendum passed, the funds would have paid to renovate three school buildings in the Sussex-Wantage district. Solar could not say exactly how many members the taxpayers' association has. Solar has been a lightning rod for controversy ever since the association mounted its opposition late last winter. At a Feb. 9 meeting, says Solar, school administrators asked him to leave the premises of a board meeting and threatened him with arrest when they found him distributing anti-referendum fliers to residents as they entered the room. Solar says he was silenced again at a July 20 board of education meeting when he tried to speak as a member of a BOE-appointed ad hoc committee. The committee, he says, was appointed to make recommendations on future referenda. But interim superintendent Anthony Mistretta says that Solar knew from the start that the meeting was not an open public forum. Its purpose was to allow New Jersey School Association spokeswoman Cathy Sousa to read a report she had prepared on the pros and cons of asking taxpayers to vote on a new referendum in December. The report is available to the public and may be read in the school board office. "We still haven't decided anything definite about having a referendum," said Mistretta, "much less anything about what form it would take." If a referendum is held, the Sussex Wantage Taxpayers Association wants it to coincide with the November general election, says Solar. "They say that each ‘extra' election called by the board of education costs the taxpayers an additional $9,000," he said. "Having all referendums, elections and budget votes held at the same time could easily save money. In addition, more people would vote." Solar says that association members feel that the amount under discussion is excessive in light of the actual repairs that are required to keep the schools safe. He and Smolowitz want to see the board ask for somewhere around $3.2 million instead of the $20 million requested in the March referendum. "If the High Point High School referendum passes, taxes will go up, and I don't think taxpayers ought to have to bear the burden of those taxes, plus whatever taxes we'd have to pay if the board of education can slip a new $20-million-plus referendum past the public," said Smolowitz. Voters of the five municipalities that send students to High Point High School will go to the polls on Sept. 27 to consider a $10.2-million referendum to renovate the existing building and add a two-storey annex. Other affected municipalities are Branchville, Frankford and Lafayette. If the referendum passes, Wantage property owners would pay an additional $20.35 for each $100,000 assessed value during the first year of the bond and an additional $10.65 the third year. Sussex Borough property owners would pay $16.50 for each $100,000 assessed value during the first year and another $8.70 the third year. According to school board president Thomas Case, the school's growing enrollment justifies the project. The high school now is serving several hundred more students than its capacity allows. Case expects the State to add about $3.25 million to the project.