LONG BRANCH — With more than $2 million generated by just three revenue sources, the city was able to minimize the potential impact on taxpayers in this year’s budget.
The City Council adopted the $54.4 million budget at its June 9 meeting, which Finance Director Ron Mehlhorn said includes about $1.8 million in revenue from beach fees and more than $600,000 from parking meters and taxi medallion sales.
“It is only going up $200,000 on $35 million,” Mehlhorn said.
The tax levy is increasing from $35.6 million in 2014 to $35.8 million this year. The municipal tax rate will increase by 2.5 cents, bringing the rate to approximately 91.7 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.
The owner of property assessed at the city average of approximately $377,000 will pay $3,457 in municipal taxes this year. Municipal taxes are one component of the property tax bill and do not include school and county taxes.
While new revenues have stabilized the tax levy, a fourth straight year with significant ratable loss is largely attributed to the tax increase.
“The taxes are up 2.5 cents [per $100 of assessed value], which means approximately $90 to the average taxpayer of about a $375,000 home,” Mehlhorn said. “Half a cent is due to an increase in taxes, and the other 2 cents are totally due to a drop in ratables.
“We lost $88 million worth of ratables — they were reduced by the county.”
According to Mehlhorn, the city has lost approximately $245 million in valuation over the last four years, bringing the total worth of properties to just under $4 billion.
During the public hearing, resident Vincent LePore criticized the city council, saying the budget could be cut further.
LePore requested that line items such as concerts could be cut from the budget and funded using private sponsorships. LePore also criticized the expenses related to the city’s redevelopment plans along the beachfront and the associated legal costs.
The city will receive $4.2 million in state aid, the same as the previous year.
Some of the larger budget expenditures include more than $7 million in health insurance costs, $9.7 million in police salaries and more than $1 million in utility costs.