LAKEHURST – The borough’s municipal budget was unanimously adopted by the council during the latest Borough Council meeting. Residents will be seeing a tax increase.
While there were seven residents present, none asked questions during the public hearing period on the budget. The spending plan was outlined by the borough’s chief financial officer Wayne M. Sibilia, through a PowerPoint presentation.
The municipal tax levy increased by 5.0% projecting to about $184 a year for the average home owner, where the average home assessment is $255,000, according to the presentation. Last year’s tax levy was $2,907,477.82 with this year’s levy at $3,052,882.90.
The total budget increased by 6.5% to $5.70 million driven by health benefit premium increase of 36% this year.
The municipal tax represents 54% of the revenues paying off the budget, while the surplus utilized was 16% of it. Officials said that the year end fund balance of $1.1 million supports long term financial stability.
The rest of the revenues included northeast housing, energy receipts tax, local cannabis, grants and other miscellaneous revenues, officials said.
This year’s spending plan represents general appropriations of 81%, capital improvements of 5%, reserve for uncollected taxes at 3.5%, debt service of 6% and shared services of 4.5%.
