BRICK – The public had the opportunity to ask questions about the 2025 municipal budget before its adoption during a recent Township Council Meeting. The spending plan was introduced in March.
The proposed 2025 budget totals $122,711,490, with an increase of 1.9 cents on $100 of assessed value, or a $47 increase for the average Brick household. Last year’s budget totaled about $117 million.
This is for the municipal portion of the tax bill only, and does not include the county, school or fire district taxes.
Most of the questions from the public focused on the utilization of some $14.6 million in surplus in the spending plan.
In New Jersey, municipal budget surplus usage is guided by the NJ Local Budget Law which says surplus – which is essentially a township’s savings account – can be used, within guidelines, to smooth out budget fluctuations, provide a cushion against unexpected expenses, and potentially reduce the need for tax increases.
Township resident Madeline Iannarone, who has been named as the Republican mayoral candidate this year and will be running against Democratic incumbent Lisa Crate, said that with a 1.9 cent increase in this year’s budget and the aforementioned use of surplus funds, “the mayor’s budget projects a 16.7 cent increase in 2026, [which] concerns me greatly.”
She asked how the township plans to replace the surplus revenue in the next budget cycle to prevent a major tax hike or a major spike next year.
“Or is this just squeezing more revenue and seeing where we can develop?” Iannarone asked. “Overdevelopment in this town is concerning me greatly. Are we chasing our ratables to bail out our budget? It’s something I need to know. It’s very scary the rate that we’re going to have to hike up.”
Resident and Republican Council Candidate for the upcoming election, Lisa Reina, also asked about the surplus. “With the increased usage of that, year over year, which brings us to a dangerous low level of under 50 percent of the surplus…is there a plan? What happens next year when the taxpayers are faced with a significant hike because the surplus has been exhausted?”
From left, Business Administrator Joanne Bergin and Chief Financial Officer Maureen Laffey-Berg discuss the budget with resident Madeline Iannarone. (Screenshot by Judy Smestad-Nunn)
Township Chief Financial Officer Maureen Laffey-Berg, who was at the council meeting to answer any budget questions, said next year’s surplus would be replenished by some $4.9 million in FEMA reserve money, which the township could not utilize until FEMA signed off on Superstorm Sandy expenses.
“We also have admin fees for police road jobs of $839,000 that’s just been accumulating,” she said, which the township auditor said could be put into surplus.
“As of right now, we have $2.3 million in the 2024 appropriation reserves, which at the end of this year will funnel into surplus…and as of today the MRNA (Miscellaneous Revenues Not Anticipated), that we’ve collected – because I figured this question was going to come – we have $1.6 million, so those four things I do know we will have (which will) increase surplus at the end of the year.”
This is in addition to some $7 million remaining in surplus, she said, bringing the surplus total after the 2025 budget completion to some $17,371,000. “There’s other floating parts – I don’t know how much more we will have,” Laffey-Berg said.
During council comments, Councilwoman Marianna Pontoriero said she has been reviewing the township budgets for over 10 years.
“I will tell you, it’s very similar to your home budget…every year expenses go up,” she said. “Every year we have to figure out how to do the same thing we did last year, but with less.”
She said the township is paying down “systematically extraordinary debt, along with carefully using the surplus.”
The next council meeting will be on Tuesday May 13 at 7 p.m.
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