{"id":7581,"date":"2022-03-10T03:32:15","date_gmt":"2022-03-10T08:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/?p=7581"},"modified":"2022-03-10T05:48:10","modified_gmt":"2022-03-10T10:48:10","slug":"toms-river-introduces-municipal-budget-with-no-tax-increase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/2022\/03\/toms-river-introduces-municipal-budget-with-no-tax-increase\/","title":{"rendered":"Toms River Introduces Municipal Budget With No Tax Rate Increase"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Toms<\/a>

Toms River municipal building. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

The Toms River Township council on Wednesday night introduced the township\u2019s 2022 operating budget, with spending remaining mostly stable and no tax increase proposed.<\/p>\n

The township\u2019s annual spending plan, which is subject to a public hearing and second vote before adoption by the council, is down from last year. Toms River will expend $133,524,805 in 2022 compared with\u00a0$141,461,234 in 2021. The drop is not due to cuts in services, but rather the absence of an influx of pandemic-related grant funding the township received last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe big difference is going to fall into the grant category,\u201d said Chief Financial Officer Judy Tutela. \u201cLast year we had several grants fall into our budget that are not recurring.\u201d<\/p>\n

To support the $133,524,805 total budget, property owners will pay $88,536,066 in property taxes. That figure is largely similar to last year\u2019s levy of $88,115,000, meaning the tax rate will remain the same in 2022 as it was in 2021. Some homeowners will pay more \u2013 or less \u2013 depending on their assessments in a recent revaluation that was ordered by the state.<\/p>\n

For the owner of a home valued at $448,000, the township\u2019s average, municipal property taxes will be $1,960. The remainder of the tax bill \u2013 about 73 percent \u2013 goes toward the public school district budget as well as several smaller taxing authorities such as Ocean County, fire districts and the county library system.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn these times, it\u2019s important to do everything we can to keep things stable,\u201d said Business Administrator Lou Amoruso. \u201cWe\u2019ve had cooperation from our eight labor unions as well as our confidential employees. We were able to settle eight labor agreements without having to hire outside labor counsel.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the tax rate remains stable, the cost of some budgetary items are increasing. Amoruso said the township will see an $816,000 increase in the costs of employee health benefits this year, however a switch to Aetna avoided a $2 million increase that was proposed by Horizon Blue Cross-Blue Shield, the previous benefits provider. The labor unions representing township employees have also agreed to consider a switch to the state health benefit system, which may reduce the benefits costs in the future. This year\u2019s increase represents a 4.8 percent hike in costs.<\/p>\n

The township was also ordered to pay an extra 5 percent into the state employee pension system \u2013 an increase of $486,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is part of governor Murphy\u2019s ongoing plan to fund the stations pensions,\u201d said Amoruso. \u201cHe\u2019s shifting the burden onto the municipalities through property taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next year \u201cwill see another large pension increase as the state fully phases in their assumed rate of return of 7 percent,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

An unavoidable expense occurred early in the year, with the January 2022 blizzard plowing and cleanup costing about $600,000.<\/p>\n

As 2022 rolls on, one of the township\u2019s primary challenges mirrors the private sector \u2013 retaining employees. With 2021 being considered the year of the \u201cGreat Resignation,\u201d Toms River lost 37 employees to retirement and 47 through resignations.<\/p>\n

\u201cAttrition is at historic levels,\u201d said Amoruso. \u201cAt the spur of the moment, a lot of people felt they had the time in, and retiring was a better option. With the retirement of the full-timers goes a wealth of institutional knowledge that is not easily replaced. There is always a succession plan, but when these decisions are made quickly, you can\u2019t go with that plan. Adapting on the fly becomes the norm.\u201d<\/p>\n

The township also had its workforce reduced, at times, due to changes in New Jersey\u2019s family leave laws. Employees utilized 1,521 days of family and medical leave in 2021, and 430 days were lost due to Covid-19 infection.<\/p>\n

Councilmen Daniel Rodrick and Justin Lamb both abstained from the introduction vote; the remainder of the council voted in favor of the measure.<\/p>\n

The budget is expected to be open to a public hearing at the March 23 meeting of the township council.<\/p>\n

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The Toms River Township council on Wednesday night introduced the township\u2019s 2022 operating budget, with spending remaining mostly stable and no tax increase proposed. The township\u2019s annual spending plan, which is subject to a public hearing and second vote before adoption by the council, is down from last year. Toms River will expend $133,524,805 in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1519,1080,97,314,11],"class_list":["post-7581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-2022-operating-budget","tag-featured","tag-property-taxes","tag-tax-rate","tag-toms-river-nj-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/IMG_5230.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}