Dan Cirucci: Dems School Funding Imbalance = Local Tax Hikes

Wednesday, August 6, 2025

Dems School Funding Imbalance = Local Tax Hikes

New Jersey State Senate Republican Budget Officer Declan O’Scanlon (R-13) released the following statement regarding recent news that Neptune, NJ taxpayers are seeing the biggest tax hike in history after Trenton Democrats cut school aid.

“What’s happening in Neptune is outrageous and unfortunately, predictable, and even more unfortunately…preventable,” said Sen. O’Scanlon. “It’s a direct result of Trenton Democrats’ reckless and irresponsible fiscal mismanagement. After slashing school aid and then implementing arbitrary caps on funding to ram through a bloated, pork-filled budget, Murphy and fellow Democrats left middle-class towns like Neptune to pick up the pieces. Now, families are facing the largest property tax hike in the town’s history.”

Sen. O’Scanlon has been an ardent defender of school funding, and even introduced legislation to fully restore funding to school districts that experienced a net loss in State aid from FY 2018 to FY 2025, essentially eliminating the 6% cap on aid increases for these districts for FY 2026.

“Democrats didn’t just drop the ball; they lit it on fire and tossed it to local governments to clean up the mess. This is what happens when you first, fail to fix a deeply flawed and outdated formula, and then purposefully tweak it to screw towns like Neptune, Asbury Park, Eatontown, Middletown, Keansburg…and so many others. It is truly outrageous & heartbreaking what’s being inflicted on the taxpayers in these towns and the children in these schools,” said O’Scanlon. “These are truly MASSIVE tax increases, and tremendous, education-damaging cuts. And it was all avoidable had the legislators in these districts stood up, rallied their colleagues, worked with Republicans and pushed back on this insanity. Make no mistake, they chose to let these massive tax increases happen.”

“Republicans warned this would happen. We offered real solutions. Democrats ignored them and chose political favors over fiscal fairness—and now local taxpayers are paying the price, this is what failed leadership looks like,” O’Scanlon concluded.

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About Dan Cirucci

He's been cited by the late Rush Limbaugh, quoted in the New York Times, featured at Real Clear Politics and Lucianne.com and interviewed across all media.

He's Dan Cirucci, the founder and editor-in chief of the Dan Cirucci Blog, a Save Jersey blog columnist, frequent guest on the Matt Rooney radio show and one of the most widely honored public relations professionals in his field. He's also been a public relations consultant to numerous organizations and individuals and hosted The Advocates on RVN-TV.

Inducted into the Philadelphia Public Relations Hall of Fame, for many years he served as a Lecturer in Corporate Communication at Penn State University. A former President of the Philadelphia Public Relations Association (PPRA) he has lectured at Rowan University, Temple University, The College of New Jersey and Arcadia University. He has conducted workshops on public relations for thousands of participants throughout the nation and has taught countless others the art of public speaking. He has also advised numerous lawyers, judges, public officials and political candidates.

Cirucci is a prolific writer and his op-ed pieces have appeared in the Philadelphia Daily News, Philadelphia Inquirer, Courier-Post, Broad and Liberty and other print and online platforms.

A native of Camden NJ, Cirucci is a former President of the Philadelphia chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators. Cirucci served as Associate Executive Director of the Philadelphia Bar Association for nearly 30 years. He served as Chair of Penn State University's Professional Advisory Board for the Corporate Communication major at Penn State Abington and on the Pennsylvania Bar Association's Judicial Selection Commission.

He received his MA degree from Rowan University and his BA from Villanova University. He has been named a Distinguished Alumnus of Rowan's public relations program and received the E. A. "Wally" Richter Leadership Award, the highest honor from the National Association of Bar Executives' Communications Section. He has also been honored by numerous other local, state and national groups.

In his hometown of Camden, Cirucci taught fifth grade at the Ulysses Wiggins Elementary School named for the founder of the Camden NAACP. There he was one of the first teachers in the country to teach African-American history to inner city students. He later served as editor of a local weekly newspaper, as Assistant to the Township Manager of Cherry Hill Township and as Associate Director of Communications at the New Jersey State Bar Association.

Cirucci's passions include all things Italian, politics, the popular culture, books and authors, art, communication, music, theatre, movies, dining and travel.

He and his wife Carole have two grown children and seven grandchildren.

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