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Politics & Government

Opiekun Discusses Possible Election Change

If Gov. Christie signs bill, municipalities will have option to move school elections to November.

With Gov. Chris Christie’s decision looming on a bill that, if passed, would allow municipalities to to coincide with November’s general election, Superintendent Jim Opiekun cleared the air on what it could mean for if this bill becomes a law.

The bill would also eliminate a vote on school district budgets for any municipalities who opted to move their school elections to November. Opiekun explained that three entities—the governing body of a municipality, the board of education or a petition signed by at least 15 percent of the municipality’s registered voters—could trigger a change in the election date for a school district.

A November election would take the school district budget decision out of residents’ hands, as long as the budget did not exceed the state-mandated two-percent tax levy cap. This is because school budgets need to be certified mid-year to align with the start of the educational fiscal year on July 1.

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“In a way, it will preclude that insanity over the budget process, but I think the other edge of that sword is what it’s really doing is accepting it as a premise that school districts can operate on two-percent increases,” said Opiekun.

Opiekun also stated that, if the borough did decide to align the school board election with the November general election, it would have to employ that election model for at least four years before having the choice to move the school board election back to April, when it is currently held.

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It is too early to tell, according to Opiekun, when or if this might take place in Kinnelon.

“The mechanics of that happening and how that is going to happen are still not defined, so rather than engage in the hypotheticals of what it might look like or how it might work, my suggestion is we wait until the governor signs it,” said Opiekun. “Afterwards, I’m sure the governor will be putting out guidelines.”

Of course, this all depends on whether or not Gov. Christie signs the bill at all.

“Basically, we’re in wait-and-see mode until we totally understand what the [regulations] are going to be around that change,” said Opiekun.

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