Toms River Introduces 2015 Budget with a nearly Three-cent Tax Hike

The $125.3 million dollar municipal spending plan proposed by the Toms River Township Council Tuesday is about a half-percent larger than the 2014 Budget and includes a 2.8 cent tax increase. 

Township Administrator Paul J. Shives said the increase would cost homeowners $28 more per $100,000 of assessed valuation.

"So, for let's say a $200,000 assessment, you're looking at $56.00," said Shives.

Shives attributed the tax increase to mainly one significant factor: snow removal costs. "We had to expend roughly $1.4 million more this year than we would in a normal year," he said. "We had an inordinate amount of snow this year, so that contributed greatly to the additional expense in this budget."

Meanwhile, Toms River is in its third year of recovery from Superstorm Sandy in 2012 as far as its program with the state of New Jersey, according to Shives.

"We have applied for funding and have assumed in the budget $7.5 million of what is called CDBG Essential Services grant funding, but this will be the last year of that.The Sandy recovery monies will expire after 2015," Shives said.

Shives noted Toms River had roughly $100 million in new ratables this year, following Sandy, but said the Township is still down almost $One billion in ratables from where the municipality was pre-Sandy.

"So the recovery is ongoing, and I can tell you we have a large number of building permits issued. We have well over 1,800 homes under construction, so it's going to go on for quite some time," said Shives.

Sandy-related capital projects are included in the budget, and Shives said that will be the case for the next couple of years.

"We will continue our street repaving program to the extent of about $3.5 million this year. We'll continue our drainage improvement program, and we have a couple of projects that involve some significant drainage improvements, so our capital budget this year is a little larger than last year, but it is still significant under where it needs to be, but that's a conscious decision to try to keep the tax rate down," he said.

The proposed 2015 budget maintains all municipal services. "The Mayor and Council were very clear that they want the existing service level maintained, so we've not cut any services at all," Shives added.

A budget hearing is being held May 5, at 6pm.