SEA BRIGHT — The 2015 municipal budget, which is heavily supported by grant revenues related to superstorm Sandy, carries a tax hike of $291 on the average home.
The budget totals $10.3 million and includes $4.1 million in storm debt repayments.
Two-and-a-half years after Sandy, the borough is preparing to regenerate its ratable base to offset federal grants that are set to run out, Sea Bright Finance Director Michael Bascom said as he presented the budget at the April 21 Borough Council meeting.
“For financial stability, we need to rebuild taxable values in the private sector,” Bascom said, adding that officials continue to work on bringing Sea Bright back to a self-sustaining borough.
The borough is down $80 million in total taxable assessed valuation as a result of Sandy. The town’s valuation went from $518 million before the October 2012 storm to $437.8 million this year, Bascom said.
The borough is in the final year of the Community Development Block Grant Essential Services program, which has thus far provided a total of $752,120 in municipal aid. The program, administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), is designed to fund a variety of services, including police and public works salaries, and solid waste disposal for disaster-impacted communities.
The budget includes $947,365 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection for portions of the seawall restoration project. It also includes $1,340,160 from the state and HUD for the downtown streetscape project.
The borough will make a final payment in this budget toward $1.83 million that was borrowed through the issuance of a oneyear special emergency note for Sandy relief, Bascom said. The payment was made two years earlier than projected and without the need for permanent borrowing, he said.
Some of the increases in the budget are due to rising pension costs and police salaries. Bascom said police wages have been stable over the past decade.
“Over the years, the department saw retirements and new police officers come in,” he said.
The budget reflects those patrol officers coming into their full salaries. Bascom said the negotiated police contract includes a new step scale for salary increases that could be as low as 2 percent or up to 9 percent.
The $10.3 million budget represents an increase over last year’s $9.4 million spending plan. The tab would increase the tax levy from last year’s $3.7 million to $3.9 million.
The municipal tax rate would increase by 3 cents to 89 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.
The owner of a property assessed at the borough average of $367,300 could expect to pay $3,267 in municipal taxes this year, or $290 more than last year. Municipal taxes are just one portion of a homeowner’s overall property tax bill, and are separate from school and county taxes and other assessments.
Bascom said the tax collection rate of 98.26 percent in 2014 is significant in the effort to generate surplus and transition back to being a self-sustaining borough. The tax collection rate keeps rising — it was 95.31 percent in 2012 and 97.68 percent in 2013.
In 2014, the borough generated $706,483 in surplus. As of Dec. 31, 2014, a total of $2.1 million was in the surplus fund.
Mayor Dina Long said the budget can be amended and adopted when the dollar amount of funds coming from the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs is known.
The budget will also be amended once the borough receives the Community Development Block Grant Essential Services funds. Last year, the borough received just over $1 million.
For more information, visit seabrightnj.org.