Parsippany, as of the 2008-2009 school year, had about 7100 students enrolled in the school district, the most of any town in Morris County.  Looking at some other towns in the county, Randolph had 5500 students, Mt. Olive had 4900, Roxbury  4300 and Jefferson 3600.  Yet these towns all received considerably more school aid from the state than did Parsippany.

Parsippany was allocated 7.1 million dollars in state aid, while Randolph got 12.5 million, Mt. Olive 14.4 million, Jefferson 14.4 and Roxbury 12.8.    Why is this?

The NJ Department of Education uses a school funding formula to determine the amount of aid they will approve for each school district in the state.  This formula is very complicated and should be refined but that is what determines school aid. (Click here to go to a DOE file which shows the formula results for all towns.)

The primary reason why Parsippany receives less aid than the smaller school districts listed above is that the state formula weighs heavily on the total property value of a town.  Parsippany has a much higher total property value than the others.  Parsippany’s total equalized property value, which the state uses in the aid formula, is over 9.8 billion dollars, while none of the other towns have even close to that value.  For example, Randolph’s is 4.9 billion.  Note that the equalized value is the current assessed value with a ratio applied to it to bring it closer to market value.

A good portion, over 40 percent, of Parsippany’s property value comes from our large commercial base, primarily from the many office buildings in town.  So, while having this commercial base brings us less school aid, the commercial base pays over 40 million of the school property taxes in Parsippany.  We still come out ahead!!!

• Craft Show
• Need more business?