Bradley Beach Homeowners May See Slight Increase in Tax Rate
By JOANNE L. PAPAIANNI
Residents in Bradley Beach will see the municipal tax rate increase by 3.6 cents per $100 of assessed valuation if preliminary budget figures hold.
Borough Administrator Phyllis Quixley said the governing body is hoping to get half of the $183,000 cut in this years state aid, restored.
That would bring the increase down to 1.63 cents per $100 of assessed valuation household.
But like all smaller towns, the borough is waiting for firm state aid figures.
Under the preliminary budget the average homeowner, with a home valued at $531,465 will see an increase of about $200 in this years municipal tax.
The school tax rate rose a negligible amount at about $1.20 this year per household.
The total municipal tax will be 46.4 cents if the current budget is adopted.
At its budget workshop meeting Tuesday council said they were not in favor of introducing the budget without firm aid figures from the state.
During the meeting Quixley went line by line through items she cut in the budget.
I would mostly cut general supplies, she said.
Quixley said some departments are down to the bone already.
One encouraging area is the preseason sale of beach badges.
We are a little bit ahead this year, ahead of last year, Quixley said.
She said sales of beach badges during December of 2006 were about $100,000, with $147,000 sold for this years upcoming season.
Mayor Stephen Schueler said that despite the cuts that have to be made he is expecting a request for personnel to be made.
Schueler said he favors allowing the approval of a current part time employee becoming a full time employee to replace an outgoing full time employee.
Schueler also said in his 16 years on the governing body he has never seen a situation similar to this years.
Schueler said he would be looking at other towns to see how they are dealing with the reductions and delays in state aid.
Im going to try to look at smart minds and see what they are doing, Schueler said.
Borough Auditor Jerry Stankiewicz cautioned council that cuts made this year could be a warning from the state.
This may be the writing on the wall, they are giving us a notice….this year was a surprise, he said.
The total municipal budget is $7,355,711.34.
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