{"id":23882,"date":"2024-04-24T03:11:03","date_gmt":"2024-04-24T07:11:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=23882"},"modified":"2024-04-24T03:11:03","modified_gmt":"2024-04-24T07:11:03","slug":"brick-officials-reduce-planned-tax-hike-after-1m-gifted-from-btmua","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2024\/04\/brick-officials-reduce-planned-tax-hike-after-1m-gifted-from-btmua\/","title":{"rendered":"Brick Officials Reduce Planned Tax Hike After $1M Gifted From BTMUA"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Brick<\/a>

Brick Mayor Lisa Crate introduces the 2023 operating budget, March 28, 2023. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

The Brick Township council unanimously approved the 2024 operating budget at its meeting Tuesday night, adopting a spending plan that reduces a property tax increase which was included in the original budget first proposed in March.<\/p>\n

Following a public hearing, the council voted in favor of an amendment to the budget, as introduced, to increase revenue by sourcing $1 million from the Brick Township Municipal Utilities Authority. The practice of using MUA funds to contribute to municipal operating budgets is not new \u2013 this year will mark the fifth time over the last 10 years that the MUA sent funding to the township. The matter did generate some consternation from a group of residents who argued the MUA money should have been directed toward the Board of Education, which faces a budgetary crisis in the face of state funding cuts. Republicans also criticized the move, saying the proposed increases were due to a tax cut last year during the heat of a mayoral election.<\/p>\n

Incumbent Democratic candidates ultimately swept that election, though Mayor Lisa Crate must run again for a full term, since she is still filling the unexpired term of former Mayor John Ducey, who left office after being appointed a Superior Court judge last year.<\/p>\n

Notwithstanding the dissent, council members from both parties agreed to accept the $1 million from the MUA \u2013 which collects its money through water-sewer service rates \u2013 to reduce the increase in property taxes which would have added up to about $98 for an median-assessed home in the township. Under the revised budget, the property tax increase will be $73.86 for the year for a homeowner whose property is assessed at $252,100, the township\u2019s median.<\/p>\n

Overall, the budget as adopted calls for a municipal tax rate of 79.271 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. That does not include school district taxes \u2013 which make up the bulk of one\u2019s property tax bill \u2013 county taxes or fire district taxes.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The Brick Township Municipal Utilities Authority, BTMUA (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

The total municipal budget for 2024 is $117,737,525, up from $115,467,763 last year. The tax levy \u2013 the amount funded by residents through property taxes \u2013 will be $83,835,406, up from $80,547,357 last year. Officials also voted to utilize $10,942,419 in surplus to pare down the property tax burden. The township, however, will still maintain a surplus of $11,505,393.<\/p>\n

Joanne Bergin, the township\u2019s business administrator, said several items were behind rising costs this year, including significant increases to state pension funds, and a $2 million increase in the township\u2019s insurance rate. Police salaries and wages, following the settlement of a new contract and maintaining a full roster of sworn officers and additional special officers, rose by $860,000.<\/p>\n

There will also some reductions in spending, including $370,000 in interest on bonds that have been retired, $400,000 less in gasoline costs and $140,000 in solid waste collection savings through grants.<\/p>\n

The township also reduced its debt load by $3.7 million between 2022 and 2023, reflected in the 2024 budget.<\/p>\n

On Thursday night, the Board of Education is expected to adopt its $162,235,456 budget for the 2024-25 school year, an increase over the $160,370,747 expended during the current school year. The 2024-25 budget, which is subject to a public hearing and vote at the meeting Thursday, includes a tax levy of $124,063,219, up from $120,466,734 during the current school year.<\/p>\n

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

The Brick Township council unanimously approved the 2024 operating budget at its meeting Tuesday night, adopting a spending plan that reduces a property tax increase which was included in the original budget first proposed in March. Following a public hearing, the council voted in favor of an amendment to the budget, as introduced, to increase […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21875,"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":[2],"tags":[5172,24,4484,921,2118],"class_list":["post-23882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-2024-municipal-budget","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-featured","tag-property-taxes","tag-tax-increase"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/lisa_crate_brick_mayor_budget_1030-scaled.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-6dc","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23882","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=23882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}