LAKEHURST – Members of the borough’s governing body as well as the School Board recently voted to approve their respective budgets, both of which included increases for taxpayers, during their latest meetings.
Concerning the municipal budget, approved recently, an average residential assessment for the 2025 municipal purpose tax will be $3,142.51. “That’s an increase of $80.58 per year,” Borough Chief Financial Officer Wayne Sibilia told The Manchester Times.
During its introduction last month, Councilwoman Bernadette Dugan, who heads the council’s finance committee reported that “we kept it as tight as possible. For an average residential assessment of $250,000, the three cent increase amounts to $75 per year.”
That was not the final figure however. The municipal tax levy this year is $2,907,477.82, an increase of $80,812.13 from 2024’s $2,826,665.69. It represents an increase of 2.86%.
Lakehurst’s 2025 municipal tax rate is 1.238 per $100 of assessed valuation. This is up from last year’s 1.208, which is a 0.030 increase at 2.48%.
The average residential assessment is $253,838 and so the average residential municipal tax bill this year is $3,142.51. This is $80.58 more than last year’s $3,061.93, which Sibilia noted as 2.63%.
School taxes also rose. District Business Administrator Joseph Firetto explained the school district budget that saw a 6.0 tax rate increase “which includes the operational costs as well as the debt levy that we already have.”
Firetto noted that “the debt was already approved as part of the referendum from last year (that was approved to raise funds for a new roof and new kitchen and cafeteria area for the Lakehurst Elementary School). We are in a unique situation. State aid – we were kept at 6% in terms of the increase which on paper was very positive in terms of funding for the district.”
He explained that New Jersey announced that school districts would not receive more than a 6 percent increase in state aid, which some districts have found difficult when costs like insurance and fuel increase more than 6 percent a year.
Firetto added, “the positive news is that a lot of the funding went to our special education. We saw a 50% increase in special ed funding but due to the nature of the costs with private placements as well as support services for these students, it is not nearly enough to support our special ed population.”
“Just like every other student in the district, we always want to provide everything, to the best of our ability, to these kids,” the business administrator said. He noted in terms of grants “they have been drastically reduced as well as Medicaid for our special ed population. Medicaid dropped 83% from last year to this year.”
Firetto said “state and federal level grants have dropped 25%.” He described proposed plans to dismantle the federal Department of Education as looking “pretty dour. We are monitoring all of this and monitoring what the state and federal departments are doing. The executive order came out for the dismantling of it.”
“We don’t see that as being an effect in terms of funding because I understand (grants/federal funding) would be dispersed by other agencies however it is a concern for the future,” Firetto added.
The student population in Lakehurst is rising. Firetto noted “we were at 381 kids two years ago and now we are at 411. We need to make sure that the funding reflects that.”
The school business administrator said the school district has been able to maintain operations and keeping class sizes “at a comfortable rate within state guidelines. That is our goal.”
