BRICK TOWNSHIP — The mayor and council Tuesday gave unanimous approval to a $111 million municipal budget, following a public hearing on the spending plan.
With the budget now adopted, there will be a 2.54 percent increase in the municipal tax rate, according to Maureen Laffey-Berg, the township’s chief financial officer.
The proposed local purpose tax rate, which is used by the municipal government, is 76.6 cents per $100 of assessed value, an increase of 1.9 cents compared to last year.
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For the median assessed value in Brick Township, which is $251,800, this “equates to an increase of roughly $4 per month, about 13 cents a day,” according to the mayor.
This portion of the total tax bill is used to fund the police department, emergency services, garbage and recycling collection, senior programs, municipal maintenance and more according to Mayor John Ducey.
The municipality’s budget makes up about a third of residents’ tax bills. The remaining cost of the tax bill is controlled by public schools, the county government, the fire district and open space funds.
The proposed spending plan totals $111,254,968. Some of the increases in spending include; a $500,000 increase in pension contributions, a $529,000 increase in police salary and wage, an increase of $587,443 in bond principal payment and a $1,580,000 increase in insurance costs.
“There is also anticipated increases in materials, goods and resources that we have to anticipate based on the state of the country at this time,” the mayor said at the budget’s introduction. “However, we worked with our Department of Division heads to go over the budget to look for opportunities to stabilize or reduce costs.”
In regard to the township’s revenue, outside of taxation, the township is expecting $9,950,000 in funds from the township surplus. This does not include grants, fees and state aid, which are outside of the township’s control.
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