Surf City’s proposed 2016 budget, introduced by council members at a public meeting Wednesday, Feb. 10, decreased $65,000 from last year’s adopted plan. The projected budget is $6,487,400.
The town used $1,332,000 of surplus in support of the budget, which is $260,000 less than last year.
The amount to be raised locally by taxation is $4,190,500. The municipal tax rate is an increase of 0.75 cents per $100 assessed valuation over 2015, when it was 26 cents per $100 assessed valuation.
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| Photo via Google Last year's tax rate was 26 cents per $100 assessed valuation. |
“The amount to be raised by taxes is just one of many revenue items,” said David Pawlishak, borough chief financial officer. “Some revenue items go up, some revenue items go down.”
Prior to the introduction of the municipal budget, council introduced an ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a 3.5 percent cap bank, amounting to $190,964.90.
This year’s proposed water and sewer budget is $2,268,400, which is $55,600 more than last year.
“We’re not raising any water or sewer fees because the increase in the budget, in this case, all came from operating surplus that we already have on hand,” said Pawlishak.
Due to the timing of the introduction and pending adoption of the 2016 budget, council passed a resolution authorizing $28,400 in temporary emergency funds in addition to the $1,782,255 in temporary budget funds passed in January. Pawlishak said the council is allowed to appropriate 26.25 percent of last year’s adopted plan for the temporary budget while the town awaits approval from the state for the new budget.
“We had to put a little extra money in some of the line items because we’ll need more than the amount that we appropriated in the beginning of the year,” said Pawlishak. “In some cases we need more than 26 percent of a particular line item where we might not need 26 percent of another line item. For example, we’re not going to be spending any money on lifeguard salaries in January, February and March. But we might need 26 percent for liability insurance, for example,” he explained.
“We can’t transfer among items in the temporary budget. We have to pass temporary emergency funds, and then when we adopt our regular budget, which is the big $6 million, that will take into account all the temporary appropriations that we put in there already,” Pawlishak added.
A public hearing on the budget and tax resolution will be held at borough hall during the council’s regular meeting on Wednesday, March 9, at 7:30 p.m.
In other meeting news, an ordinance was introduced to raise the fee for weekly beach badges from $17 to $18.
Two anonymous contributions in the form of $2,000 and $5,000 were donated to help fund the town’s lifeguard and emergency services.
To better respond to crises in the area, Councilman William Hodgson noted two military Humvees with “low mileage” were donated to the town from Joint Base Maguire-Dix-Lakehurst. Exercise equipment for police as well as tire mounting and balancing machines for the public works department were also provided.
The town is seeking $45,000 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant Program for the installation of automatic doors for handicapped access at the firehouse.
The borough approved a shared services agreement with Long Beach Township for utilization of its certified recycling specialist, as required by law. It is being provided at no cost to Surf City.
A $94,491 contract was awarded to Gen II Contracting Co. of Millstone Township for repairs to the public works garage. The five other project bids ranged in price from $104,461 to $189,823.
The borough complex was dedicated as the Leonard T. Connors Jr. Municipal Complex in honor of the former long-time mayor.
“We should name the whole town after him, but we can’t do that,” said Mayor Francis Hodgson.
— Kelley Anne Essinger
This article was published in The SandPaper.
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