Lone councilman says more should have been done to cut 1.7¢ increase
SOMERS POINT — City Council adopted its $18,885,378 municipal budget April 28 in a 6-1 vote, with Councilman Joe McCarrie saying more could have been done to lessen the tax impact.
The tax rate will increase 1.7 cents to $1.025 per $100, or $1,025 on each $100,000 of assessed value. That amounts to about $34 more annually on a $200,000 home.
The spending plan includes a $230,171 increase in the tax levy to $11,629,735.
McCarrie explained by telephone the following day that he voted against the budget after reviewing it and reaching out to City Council President Janice Johnston asking for more time for discussion. He said she rejected his wishes and planned to move forward with the public hearing.
“I reviewed it and went through it and scheduled a meeting with [auditor Leon Costello] the day before the council meeting because I had some questions,” he said. “I came away with a feeling that we could have done a little bit better in terms of reducing the tax increase.”
McCarrie said he thinks it would be irresponsible to not have any increase, given rising inflation and global tensions, but “I believe that we could have knocked off a penny.”
He said he thinks budgeting could have been “more precise, closer to what real costs are going to be.”
“Sometimes you have to budget hard in times like these and get closer to what the real expense is and not have anything left over,” McCarrie said.
Calling it a “smart budget,” Johnston said Saturday when asked about McCarrie’s comments that a lot of work went into crafting the spending plan.
“We started working on the budget in January and spent many hours, went through every single line item three or four times,” she said. “I also met with anybody who came to me that had a concern — met with them, went through it with them, met with our professionals.”
Johnston said with the help of Costello, CFO Shana Kestrel and Business Administrator Jason Frost, as well as Budget Committee members Councilmen Sean McGuigan and Howard Dill, they reduced the proposed tax rate increase from 8 cents to 1.7 cents.
“I have to take my professionals’ advice. We got it down and thanks to Shore Medical Center we got it down some more,” Johnston said.
The health care system annually makes a payment in lieu of taxes to the city since its properties are all tax-exempt.
“This is a smart budget. I’m proud of what the committee did and how hard we worked. If anybody had a concern they certainly were more than welcome to reach out to us. Some people did and we listened to them and looked at it over and over and over again,” Johnston.
State aid and federal grants are up more than $1 million to $1.67 million, with plans for part of the money targeted at improving the historic Bay Avenue district and opening a farmers market at Somers Mansion.
Under appropriations, salaries and benefits are up $315,550, or 4.7 percent, to $6.97 million, the single largest line item.
The city was helped by an increase in total taxable property, known as ratables. It realized an increase of $3.7 million, or .33 percent, to $1.134 billion.
The city enjoyed an incredible 99.19 percent tax collection rate. Calculated at 97 percent for budgeting purposes, the extra helped boost the surplus.
The city must fund the school budget and county budget at 100 percent regardless of how much it collects, which is why it annually keeps a reserve for uncollected taxes.
Surplus is up this year by $371,000 to $2.863 million, an increase of 16 percent. The city will use $2.685 million, leaving $178,112 in reserve.
McCarrie also said he thinks more surplus should have been applied to the budget to reduce the amount of the increase.
“That’s the taxpayers’ money,” he said. “It’s up to us to be a steward of the taxpayers’ money and if there is an opportunity to bring the tax down even a little, I think we should do it.”
Costello said the city could increase spending and raise taxes more, being well situated beneath the budget caps. The city is $292,113 below the 2 percent tax levy cap.
The city budget makes up only about 30 percent of a tax bill, with the local and regional school budgets making up just more than 50 percent and the county budget another 20 percent.
The Somers Point Board of Education adopted its budget April 28 with no increase in the local tax rate of 98.4 cents.
Mainland Regional High School was expected to adopt its $30,942,090 budget May 2. Under the plan, Somers Point taxpayers would see their rate increase .6 cents to 74.9 cents.
However, Atlantic County’s $236.8 million budget calls for a 1.5-cent decrease, bringing the total expected tax increase for a homeowner to .8 cents, or $80/$100,000. That translates into a total tax increase of about $200 on a home assessed at $250,000.
By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff
