By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff
SOMERS POINT — City Council was expected to adopt the 2021 municipal budget April 8 but decided to wait for guidance on how the city can spend federal COVID relief funding before doing so.
City Administrator Jason Frost said the budget, which was introduced March 11, increases the amount to be raised by taxes less than 2 percent over the 2020 spending plan but is “probably going to be well below that once we get the guidance from the state on what we can do with the COVID relief.”
He was anticipating that guidance Friday or Monday, April 12, which he said gives the city time to amend the budget and adopt it before the April 30 deadline. Council’s next meeting, during which there will be a public hearing on the spending plan, is scheduled for 7 p.m. April 22.
The total proposed budget is $16,930,568, up slightly from $16,913,320 in 2020. That includes $11,626,401 to be raised by taxes — up $203,708 — and $5,304,167 in other revenue including surplus and receipts from delinquent taxes.
The proposed spending plans calls for a 2-cent increase in the tax rate to $1.028 per $100 of assessed value, or $20 on each $100,000. Last year in Somers Point, where the average home price was $212,195, the average tax bill was $6,508, with the school tax making up 51.2 percent, or $3,332. The municipal tax would increase that bill by $42 on the average-assessed home.
The county tax rate was set to increase 1.8 cents. That amounts to another $18 per $100,000, or $38 more on an average-assessed home.
Somers Point’s share of the Mainland Regional High School budget as adopted would increase the regional school portion of the tax bill by 4 cents to 74.3 cents per $100. That equates to $40 on each $100,000 or $84 on the average assessed home.
The local school budget does not call for an increase in the tax rate.
If all budgets are adopted as proposed, homeowners in Somers Point would see an increase of 7.8 cents per $100, or $165 on an average-assessed home.
Last year’s total tax rate was $3.224. That would increase to about $3.30 per $100, or $3,300 per $100,000 for a total bill on an average-assessed home of $7,002.
Salaries and wages, which make up 38 percent of the budget, will increase by $210,050 to $6,473,750.
The city’s available surplus is $2,420,214. Of that, $2,213,000 will be applied to the budget, leaving $207,214 in reserve.
Group health insurance will cost $1,931,000. Employees contribute $351,00 so the city’s share is $1,580,000.
The city has budgeted debt service payments, or loans, of $1,930,920, up $66,395.
