Taxpayers' associations clear the air on endorsement of school budget

WANTAGE-The Sussex-Wantage Taxpayers‚ Association wants to make it clear that it has no position on the forthcoming High Point High School referendum, says member Rudy Solar of Wantage. High Point Superintendent John W. Hannum said he met with representatives of the taxpayers' group and although they didn't say they formally endorsed the budget, they didn't express any specific objection to it. Hannum said that he had the impression after the meeting that the group members had positive feelings towards the referendum, although they did not say they endorsed it. William Gettler of Wantage, a local taxpayer activist, says he wants people to be sure not to confuse the Sussex-Wantage Taxpayers' Association (SWTA) with the Wantage Township Taxpayers Association: They are two entirely different groups, and the latter group, with which Gettler is affliliated, did not meet with Hannum. Gettler felt confusion about the two groups may have arisen over a story on the referendum in The Advertiser-News last week. The Sept. 27 referendum will ask voters to approve a $10.2-million capital project to renovate and improve High Point Regional High School, which serves students from Sussex, Wantage, Lafayette, Branchville and Frankford. "After reading [The Advertiser-News article] Thursday evening, last Friday I telephoned Rudy Solar of the SWTA to bust him for their again selling out the Wantage Township Taxpayers, as the SWTA had done on the High Point budget," said Gettler. "Rudy . . .assured me that they never endorsed the High Point referendum." Gettler also remarked that the sample ballot printed in the High Point's September newsletter under the heading, "How will the ballot question read?" was in fact a paraphrase of the language voters will see on the actual ballot, not the actual wording, and he charged school officials with being disingenuous. Soler's group formed within the past year and was instrumental in defeating a larger bond issue to expand and renovate schools in the Sussex-Wantage School District. Gettler's organization is older and also opposed the prior referendum. The high school was built more than 35 years ago to serve a maximum of 1,227 students. Enrollment this year has reached 1,400 and officials expect at least 200 additional students in the next several years. The local share of the project would be about $7 million with the remaining $3.2 million paid by the state, either through a lump-sum grant or through contributions toward debt service on the bonds that would be issued to finance the work. The impact on local taxes of the bond would vary with the sending districts. Branchville and Sussex would see the lowest increase - about $17 in the first year of bonding on a house assessed at $100,000, while Wantage and Frankford would be highest at around $20. The maximum annual increase would hit in 2008-2009, at between $26-$31.