BAY HEAD — The borough council approved Bay Head’s fiscal 2023 municipal budget on April 4, citing ‘major issues’ that require a four percent tax increase.
“Bay Head is not exempt from inflation, just like you are not exempt in your personal life,” said Chief Financial Officer William Antonides. “There were a lot of major issues we faced in this budget. It was a very difficult budget. The garbage contract alone went up 66 percent compared to the contract in 2022.”
According to Mr. Antonides, the municipal taxes have increased four percent over last year’s budget. To a taxpayer with an average assessed home of $1,617,945, this equates to a $207 increase per year or .57 a day.
“Considering all the major cost increases we have, it is really not that bad,” said Mr. Antonides. “Budgets are tough and you can’t satisfy 100 people 100 percent of the time.”
Councilman Jim Gates also discussed how diligently the CFO and council worked on the budget mentioning inflation as the main reason for the increase.
“There is a lot of hard work that goes into the budget and it seems to become tougher every year,” said Mr. Gates. “Especially in the past couple months you have heard me talk about the impact of inflation and the bills that were way out of line with inflation…It is a fluid project and we are already worrying about and working on things that will happen this year which potentially could impact things a year or two down the road.”
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