MANCHESTER – Mayor Robert Arace provided further details concerning this year’s budget that carries with it a 3.9 cent municipal tax increase.
For the owner of a property valued at $202,000 – the township average – this translates to an increase of $82 a year. Last year’s average home value was $201,400. This figure is based on your property’s assessment, not what you paid for it.
The average municipal tax in 2023 was $1,218.47. This year’s average municipal tax is $1,300.88.
The net value used to compute the tax rate is $4,261,814,800. One penny on the tax rate is equal to $426,181.
Mayor Arace stressed before the public hearing that while the municipality collects school tax and other types of taxes, this represents only the township portion. This marked the second budget presentation he has made before council and the public to explain and provide details about the spending plan.
It may also be his last. Arace outlined last year’s budget during his first year in office. He will be running as one of two Republican candidates for the Board of Ocean County Commissioners in November and if successful, will conclude his time as mayor by the end of this year.
“A lot of folks ask questions about the Ocean County Landfill. We are a host community and we do receive revenue broken out in our budget from the landfill for them to operate here. (We) typically receive between $1.1 and $1.3 million from the landfill,” the mayor noted.
“The budget will be available online at our website,” the mayor said as he explained a pie chart concerning expenditures of the township. He said “34.2% are police and EMS, approximately 44% of the budget are operating expenses, statutory expenses, health care, liability insurance and debt service. Police and EMS account for a little over a third of the expenditures as we keep up with 33,000 plus calls per year.”
“There are a variety of areas that we saw increases in the budget. Health care was up 10% and two pension systems PRS and PERS were up, 13% and 17% respectively, workers comp was up at 11% and property insurance was up 12%. With all that said we worked diligently, the council, the CFO (chief financial officer) to really keep the budget at as close to last year as possible,” Mayor Arace added.
Mayor Robert Arace’s PowerPoint presentation illustrated the figures behind taxation during a recent Manchester Township Council meeting. (Photo by Bob Vosseller)
He noted that 58.4% was raised through taxation. He also said the township’s department heads did seek out grants to help stabilize the budget and to make purchases for equipment.
One grant Arace pointed out was the Byrne Law Enforcement grant. “We are an 82 square mile town and a fairly large fleet of police vehicles and those vehicles rack up miles very quickly and they become very costly to maintain over time. Working with Chief (Antonio) Ellis last year when he was Lt. Ellis, we put together a list of vehicles that needed to be upgraded.”
The mayor noted the $1.4 million that the township would receive for police vehicles. He also noted the township’s 10-year water utility master plan that involved “key investments we needed to make for our infrastructure.”
The governing body also voted unanimously to approve several bonding ordinances. One concerned a water main replacement project on North Buckingham Drive in the amount of $2,200,000 (which Business Administrator Carl Block said would be covered in a reimbursement grant). A bonding ordinance for a communications center upgrade for the police department will cost $4.6 million, and the town will borrow $4.37 million of this.
Also approved were a bond ordinance for various water utility improvements in Eastern Service area appropriating $4,145,000, and authorizing the issuance of $4,145,000 in bonds; as well as various water utility improvements in the Western Service area appropriating $5,669,750 and issuing $5,669,750 in bonds and notes for various capital improvements.
The last bond ordinance approved was for various capital improvements and the acquisition of various capital equipment. The figure of $5,400,000 was appropriated and authorization made for the issuance of $5,130,000 in bonds and notes to finance a portion of the costs.
With bonds, a town has to put up 5% of the costs before borrowing, which explains why some of the projects have differences between the two sums.
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