ABSECON – Councilman Chuck Urban is a man on a mission.
And he’s not one to let a little thing like being voted out of office stand in the way of bringing state issues to City Council.
Urban’s latest project has been getting council to take a leadership role in the county with a fair school funding resolution – supporting legislation by state Sen. Mike Doherty to distribute school funds equally among all students in the state.
“Today 20 percent of the students receive 60 percent of the education dollars,” Urban said in a recent interview with The Current. “For every dollar they send to Trenton , there’s 150 towns that only get a nickel back.”
Absecon isn’t one of those towns, he said, but it’s close.
“Absecon gets back 22 cents for each dollar. And this is while other towns get 20, 30 or 40 dollars back,” Urban said.
Communities getting less than their fair share of state money have to make up the difference through higher local property taxes, he said.
“That’s why this is totally unfair,” Urban said. “The Doherty Fair School Funding Plan levels the playing field. It takes the income tax and divides it equally among each student as called for by the state constitution.”
Since Absecon City Council unanimously passed its resolution supporting Doherty’s plan, Egg Harbor Township, Northfield, Ventnor and Somers Point have passed similar resolutions.
And on Tuesday, Dec. 6, the Atlantic County Board of Freeholders passed a resolution 6-3 “supporting fair school funding and calling upon the legislature … to take action accordingly.”
According to Urban, the disparity in state funding reimbursement is the fault of the Supreme Court, which decided – contrary to the Constitution – to give disproportionate aid to poorer school districts.
“If you want to do that, there’s a way – change the law,” Urban said. “The judicial branch is completely off-base – whether they legislated or strong-armed the legislature into action. We’re basically rewarding failure and punishing success.”
And pushing many communities toward bankruptcy, he said.
“We’re trying to figure out the problem – why our property taxes are so high,” Urban said. “It turns out it’s because we’re not getting our money back from Trenton. The Supreme Court hijacked the constitution.”
After barely a year on council, Urban was defeated for his 2nd Ward council seat by Democrat Kimberly Horton, a local schoolteacher.
“I’ve passed the baton to her,” Urban said. “I’ve spoken to her. As an educator, she is very close to the situation and she’s ready to hit the ground running with it.”
At his last council meeting, Thursday, Dec. 15, Urban was praised by each member of council for bringing state issues that affect Absecon to the local governing body.
Absecon, Urban said, was the first to pass a resolution against the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
“We passed our resolution March 17,” he said. “Then it spread throughout the state.”
Urban said he was also proud of his directing the city’s roads program and participating in the Absecon budget process.
“I was only on council for a year,” he said. “I felt I was just hitting my stride. I thank all the people that supported me, and hopefully they’ll have a chance to support me again.”
Though not his first act of drawing Absecon into state-level situations, he said fair school funding was the most important.
“This is a big one for me,” Urban said. “We can keep costs down. We have volunteer fire and ambulance and a really great police department. The Fair Funding Act will solve a lot of problems.”
For information see www.fairschoolfunding.com.
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