{"id":12324,"date":"2018-03-02T00:46:34","date_gmt":"2018-03-02T05:46:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=12324"},"modified":"2018-03-02T02:52:03","modified_gmt":"2018-03-02T07:52:03","slug":"ocean-county-tax-rate-to-drop-spending-to-rise-slightly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2018\/03\/ocean-county-tax-rate-to-drop-spending-to-rise-slightly\/","title":{"rendered":"Ocean County Tax Rate to Drop, Spending to Rise Slightly"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Freeholder<\/a>

Freeholder John C. Bartlett (center) lead a discussion on the 2018 Ocean County budget. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

Ocean County residents are reaping the rewards of Superstorm Sandy recovery, with a boosted ratable base accounting for a drop in the county portion of residents\u2019 property tax bills.<\/p>\n

The Ocean County freeholder board this week outlined the county\u2019s 2018 spending plan, which is below the state\u2019s 2 percent cap on expenditures. Overall, the county will be funded by a $416 million budget, up 1.96 percent from the $406 million spending plan approved in 2017.<\/p>\n

But despite the increase in expenditures, the tax rate will dip from\u00a035.2 cents to 34.7 cents per $100 of assessed real estate value. For the owner of a home worth $300,000, that equates to an annual savings of about $15.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not going to buy you much, but the fact is that we\u2019re moving in the right direction,\u201d said Freeholder John C. Bartlett, Jr., who has shepherded the county\u2019s budgetary process for decades.<\/p>\n

Despite the cap, the county could have used exemptions in the law to raise taxes by another $6 million, but the board, instead, chose to keep the rate as stable as possible, as board members promised following Superstorm Sandy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t need a cap,\u201d said Bartlett. \u201cWe\u2019re better than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

As coastal real estate is rebuilt \u2013 often the properties that pay among the highest residential property taxes in the county \u2013 the effects can be felt by property owners nowhere near the water, since the pool of money that can be collected increases.<\/p>\n

The county tax base rose\u00a0$2.66 billion, from $97.15 to $99.8 billion, between 2017 and 2018. The county\u2019s surplus \u2013 central to maintaining its triple-A bond rating \u2013 bounced to\u00a0$55.4 million this year compared to $51.7 million in 2017. About $22 million from surplus is being utilized to fund the overall budget for the benefit of the taxpayers, but county officials say they expect an even larger surplus next year.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The Ocean County Administration Building, Toms River, N.J. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

A healthy surplus is required for maintaining the bond rating, which is extremely rare for a government agency in cash-strapped New Jersey. The bond rating allows the county to bond for capital projects at the lowest rates available, which translates into saving for taxpayers who must pay back the loans.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt guarantees our triple-A bond rating, it puts some money in the bank, and we\u2019re confident we can do the same thing next year,\u201d said Bartlett.<\/p>\n

Freeholder Virginia Haines credited the county\u2019s budgeting policies and cooperation from department heads in submitting fiscally-prudent budgets.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the ways we\u2019re very fortunate is that we have great department heads,\u201d said Haines. \u201cThey know there can be certain increases, but nobody goes overboard \u2013 we\u2019re very fortunate in Ocean County, this doesn\u2019t happen in other counties in New Jersey.\u201d<\/p>\n

The budget will be formally introduced next Wednesday. Final adoption and a public hearing will occur at the board\u2019s April 4 meeting.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ocean County residents are reaping the rewards of Superstorm Sandy recovery, with a boosted ratable base accounting for a drop in the county portion of residents\u2019 property tax bills. The Ocean County freeholder board this week outlined the county\u2019s 2018 spending plan, which is below the state\u2019s 2 percent cap on expenditures. Overall, the county […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12325,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12],"tags":[24,300],"class_list":["post-12324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ocean-county","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-ocean-county-budget"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_2118.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-3cM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}