Facing a multimillion-dollar budget gap, the Plainfield Board of Education proposed raising school taxes by more than 36% earlier this year.
After an outcry from residents and weeks of back-and-forth over the issue, the board instead voted to raise school taxes 18% last week over the objection of the Union County city’s mayor.
“What we’re witnessing is a failure of planning, oversight, and will,” Plainfield Mayor Adrian Mapp said. “Throwing more money at an unstable system is not the answer.”
Plainfield’s school board first faced backlash in March when it introduced a preliminary $338 million budget for the 2025-26 school year that would have raised local school taxes by 36%.
The planned tax hike would have cost the average homeowner an additional $853 annually.
Following objections from the public, the board reversed its decision and instead voted to keep taxes flat for the seventh consecutive year. But that move would would have led to school staffing cuts, local officials said.
At a packed Plainfield Board of Education meeting on April 29, where hundreds of teachers protested potential layoffs, school board officials once again reversed course.
Seeking “middle ground,” the board rejected its earlier proposal to keep taxes flat. After entering executive session, school board members returned to vote on a revised budget plan that drew applause from the packed audience.
The new plan includes a 2% tax levy increase and taps into $4.4 million in reserve funds to help close the school district’s funding gap, district officials said.
That means homeowners will see an annual school tax increase of about $427 for the average Plainfield home, or about an 18% increase, according to the district.
With the tax increase, Plainfield Public Schools will no longer have to cut cut teachers or staff, according to Superintendent of Schools Rashon Hasan.
The board’s decision again drew criticism from Plainfield’s mayor, who called the school board’s repeated reversals on the budget irresponsible.
“Raising taxes by 36%, reversing course to 0% after public outcry, and then voting for 18% is not a strategy — it’s a warning sign. A warning that those charged with leadership must do better," Mapp said.
The district’s budget still needs to be put up for a final vote. The board’s next meeting is scheduled for May 20.
Plainfield has about 10,000 students across 15 schools, according to the latest state data. The city’s median household income was $70,712 in 2022, according to U.S. Census Bureau data — one of the lowest in Union County.
The previously proposed 0% tax increase would have forced Plainfield to slash a total of $9.5 million in spending across multiple areas, according to Hasan, the district’s superintendent.
The cuts would have included about 26 staff positions, along with reductions to utilities, capital projects, transportation and instructional programs, according to the school board.
“As a school district, we cannot continue to operate the way we always have because doing so will only yield the same results,” Hasan said.
Teachers were overwhelmingly in favor of a middle-ground solution, supporting the 18% tax increase at the board’s recent meeting. They argued staff reductions would harm students.
“The 1,318 members of this association work tirelessly day in and day out,” Plainfield Education Association President Keith Coston said at the meeting. “We are not standing here just for ourselves.”
As a lower-income district, the majority of Plainfield’s school budget comes from state aid, local officials said.
Under Gov. Phil Murphy $12.1 billion school funding plan for fiscal year 2026, the Plainfield school district is slated to receive about $288 million — 4.3% more than the previous year.
However, with New Jersey’s school funding formula now fully implemented, lower-income districts like Plainfield, formerly known as Abbott districts, are no longer seeing the substantial yearly increases they once relied on.
Other school districts across the state have been forced to resort to desperate measures to close crippling budget gaps, including slashing staff, raising property taxes and closing schools.
Stories by Nyah Marshall
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Nyah Marshall may be reached at nmarshall@njadvancemedia.com