By Charles Layton
A draft of Neptune Township’s budget for 2012 calls for a property tax increase of 2.8 cents per $100 of assessed value. Figured another way, it would be $28 per $100,000 of assessed value.
That’s $68 for the average Neptune home, i.e., one assessed at $239,761.
Michael Bascom, the chief financial officer, gave Township Committee members a budget briefing on Monday. He said the figures in his current working draft are not likely to change much between now and March 12, when the final version will be introduced. The Committee will hold a public hearing on the budget on April 9.
“This is a very difficult budget,” Bascom said. “The departments will have to be very frugal to get by.”
The total budget, according to Bascom’s draft, totals $38,561,180. Neptune had reduced the size of its budget in 2010 and again in 2011. This year’s total would be $1.1 million more than last year but $3.4 million less than the 2009 budget.
He said the city jobs eliminated in recent years have not been replaced, and some full-time jobs have been converted to part-time, without benefits.
He attributed the need for a tax increase primarily to the continued decline in state aid, an increase in police salaries and wages, and the paying down of bonds and notes. (State aid was 25 percent of the budget 10 years ago; it is less than 13 percent now, he said.) Another budget item due to increase this year is health benefits.
Some of the economic news was good. Bascom said tax collections for 2011 were $1.6 million more than anticipated, and he said there was also a slight increase in net valuations of taxable property. (Although he didn’t mention it, we’ve also not had snow-emergency expenses this winter.)
The largest spending categories for the Township are police and public safety (28 percent), insurance (16 percent) and road maintenance and public works (15 percent).
Neptune’s taxes represent only about 28 percent of our total tax bill. The rest of the bill is for school, county, fire district and library taxes.
Compared to many towns in NJ, the taxes in OG are on the high side of reasonable. However, most towns that have taxes at the rate of OG also have good schools — something that is certainly not the case here. In that sense, it could be reasonably argued that we are way overpaying. The notion of the “haves” subsidizing the lifestyles of the “have nots” is a strong and growing trend everwhere in the US, so we should all just get used to it and quit complaining.
If Neptune received the utility tax money that the state collects from JCP&L, NJ Natural Gas, and NJ American Water and, by law, is supposed to send us in full, but instead disburses at its discretion, we would have been lowering taxes for the past five years. To add insult to injury, the state has mislabeled that money as “state aid,” like it’s some kind of special gift. It’s kind of like someone borrowed your good silver cutlery and then wrapped it up with a bow on top and gave it back to you.
For the record, this is not a cheap shot at Governor Christie; this has been a bipartisan problem.
And with the possible exception of Detroit, property near the ocean, a river or a lake is almost always assessed at a higher rate than houses further inland. The only way to “equalize” tax rates is to create an ocean in the Gables or a river in Midtown. Since Bradley Park, Midtown, the Gables and West Neptune will, for the most part, never reach the assessment levels of the Grove and Shark River Hills, I guess we’ll just have to turn back the clock for Ocean Grove to the early 1990s when the Grand Atlantic and the Main Avenue House, among many other rooming houses, were at capacity for patients released from Marlboro Psychiatric Hospital. That was when homes could be purchased for $60K and taxes were low. I don’t think that’s what OG residents are looking for, though.
Another way to express it would be a $280 tax increase on a home assessed at $1 million.
I love the way only $68.oo for a home that is valued at $239,000.00 in Neptune …Well we don’t live in Neptune and you can’t even purchase a garage in O.G. for that amount. I think for the Grove it’s going to be more like $350.00 to $500.00 on the average.
Sure elect politicians that claim they’re a part of the Grove and do nothing but burden us with condos, parking, and taxes, sure great people.
Most towns have worked very hard to lower taxes, not raise taxes. I feel our financial officer should know and find ways to lower taxes not just go after the lowest paid people as DPW/garbage men. They should go after the big salary people in town including financial manager, administrator, teachers, Board of education, etc.
We all know there are many many ways to lower taxes. If our Gov. Christy can go after teachers and everyone else, why can’t our community?
I think it might be time to raise Neptune’s taxes to proportion to Ocean Grove. I can’t beleive with all the revenue Neptune receives from the homes, all the businesses and state money, they are always in a hole. We really need people in office that work for the people and don’t elect those that just believe in raising taxes as the only way to solve our problems.
Just a reminder that seniors over the age of 65 can freeze their property taxes if they have a combined income of less than $80,000 in 2010 and 2011. The freeze does not affect town revenues but rather is a reimbursement from the state for the difference in your taxes between your base year and each future year. So, if you applied for the freeze in 2011 and your taxes were $9000 and in 2012 your taxes rise to $9300, you still must pay your tax but you can claim the $300 as a reimbursement from the state.
To file for the freeze and get more details go here. http://www.nj.gov/treasury/taxation/ptr/eligibility.shtml
Thanks to Governor Christie for protecting the freeze for seniors!
Seems very reasonable, all things considered. I would be willing to pay even more if we got more police coverage — especially in the summer.