April 21 (Bloomberg) -- New Jersey residents may reject a greater percentage of school budgets than last year when they go to the polls today amid dissatisfaction with rising property taxes that are already the nation’s highest.

Schools represent the largest portion of the real-estate tax bill in New Jersey, where the average levy exceeded $7,000 last year from about $4,100 a decade ago. Citizens in more than 90 percent of the state’s 603 districts have the chance to vote on schools’ annual spending plans, which combined are seeking more than $14 billion.

A year ago, 74 percent of school budgets were approved in an election that drew 14 percent of voters. The last time fewer than half of spending plans passed was 1976. The threat of higher taxes may draw more people to the ballot box to vote “no” in a year when residents are already coping with rising unemployment and foreclosures, plunging stock values and a state budget that proposes other tax increases.

“The school districts are aware of the financial conditions out there,” said Frank Belluscio, a spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards Association. “We’re going to have a drop off of approvals from last year, but a majority should pass.”

Most of New Jersey’s school districts must have budgets approved by voters every April. Planned spending this year is largely flat or anticipates a less than 4 percent increase, because educators understand that voters’ personal finances have deteriorated, Belluscio said.

“If there’s going to be a year when we’re going to see a major number of them rejected, I would expect it to be this year,” said Jerry Cantrell, president of the New Jersey Taxpayers Association, an anti-tax group. “New Jersey is a state that has been majorly impacted by the fiscal downturn.”

Drawing Voters

New Jersey ranked second in the U.S. in school spending during 2006, trailing only New York, according to the Census Bureau. Districts in the state spent $14,630 per pupil, while New York spent $14,884. The national average was $9,138.

Voter turnout is a key factor in determining how budgets fare, said Cantrell, a former board president of the Randolph Township School District in Morris County. Turnout in New Jersey school elections ranged from 7.3 percent to 18.6 percent over the past 25 years, with the low in 1985 and the high in 1991. Polls close at 9 p.m.

“If the economic situation forces more people to come out, you’ll see a lot more rejections,” Cantrell said. “If they don’t, you’ll see the same patterns of” parent-teacher associations “getting parents to come out and pass them.”

Cap Law

Governor Jon Corzine signed a law in 2007 limiting the annual school-tax increase to 4 percent. Any district wanting to exceed the cap must ask voters for permission in a separate ballot question requiring 60 percent approval.

This year, 11 districts want to exceed the cap -- Mainland Regional in Atlantic County; Lyndhurst in Bergen County; Kingsway Regional and Monroe Township in Gloucester County; South Amboy in Middlesex County; Denville, Long Hill Township and Mount Olive Township in Morris County; Ringwood in Passaic County; Ogdensburg in Sussex County and Oxford in Warren County. Last year, 28 districts had the so-called second questions; 12.1 percent of them passed.

Ringwood, which has four schools and 1,400 students, seeks an additional $350,000 to close a deficit. Passage of its budget and the second question would add $130.15 to the average property tax bill in the borough of 12,000 residents.

If the second question fails, the district intends to eliminate four teaching positions, increase class sizes, reduce the hours of a media specialist, secretary and custodian to part-time and cut back on the number of custodians that open school buildings for Saturday community basketball programs.

More Money

“We know how difficult it is to even consider assuming additional tax burdens,” Ringwood Schools Superintendent Patrick Martin wrote in an April 2 note on the budget. “The economic situation is not the children’s fault, and cutting back on attention and services we give them is a perilous business.”

Denville is asking for $240,145 to fund extracurricular clubs, a maintenance position and its strings music program. This would raise the tax bill by $16.46 a year for the average home assessed at $311,500, whose tax bill is about $3,398. Without the increase, taxes would drop by $16.30.

The 11 districts proposing second questions are the fewest ever. Typically, about 70 to 100 ask voters for such approval, according to the school boards association.

The poor economy and the state restriction on school finances have reduced the number of second propositions, the school boards association said.

“You’re really looking at tight budgets,” Belluscio said.

Public education is one of the few areas in Corzine’s budget to get a funding increase. The governor proposed boosting direct school aid by more than $300 million, to $8.8 billion.

The $29.8 billion state budget, which must be approved by lawmakers before the July 1 start of the fiscal year, seeks to cut property-tax rebates and raise levies on cigarettes, alcohol and the wealthy to close a $7 billion deficit.

To contact the reporters on this story: Chris Dolmetsch in New York at cdolmetsch@bloomberg.net;

Last Updated: April 21, 2009 11:45 EDT