Longport Borough Hall
LONGPORT – The Board of Commissioners Wednesday, April 17 approved the borough’s 2019 municipal budget with a three-tenths-of-cent tax rate decrease. The board also introduced two bond ordinances for utility and capital improvements.
Auditor Michael Garcia of Ford-Scott Associates of Ocean City presented the $8.65 million budget, which includes a $158,000 increase in spending. The amount to be raised through taxation is $6,723,051, up 11%, or nearly $400,000 more than last year.
No one commented or questioned the budget during the public hearing.
The total assessed valuation of the borough is up an estimated $24 million over last year, which helped to reduce the tax rate. The new tax rate will be 32.7 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. The average homeowner with a house assessed at $1 million will see their taxes decrease $30 this year, Garcia said.
“We are able to do that because we had additional surplus on hand,” Garcia said.
The budget includes $7.84 million for general appropriations and $918,120 for water and sewer. The budget is $505,991 under the 3.5% spending cap and $1.26 million under the 2% tax levy cap, Garcia said.
Increases include budgeting $40,000 for a part-time administrator, a $57,000 increase in public employee and police pension payments, $15,000 for street paving, and a $15,000 increase in the engineering line item, which will cover the cost of hiring of an engineer to replace Richard Carter when he retires at the end of the year.
“The cost of his replacement is unknown,” Garcia said.
The budget also includes the first-year collection of the minimum library tax totaling $656,597 to fund the Longport Public Library.
The Library Board, which governs operation of the library, spent $220,000 to operate the library last year. However, it will use $385,000 to fund library operations this year.
According to Library Manager Ricky Gerhardt, the library board will have $84,000 in additional administrative costs, such as legal and auditing fees, that the borough covered last year. The library budget includes $178,000 for personnel, $50,000 for materials, and $25,000 for programs.
The municipal budget also includes a $26,000 increase in public employee and Fire Department salary and wages for summertime coverage.
“The fact that we are still maintaining a volunteer fire department is a tremendous savings for the people of Longport,” Mayor Nicholas Russo said. “We put in the $26,000 to provide firefighters with small stipends to maintain a presence at the firehouse and maintain the equipment. We find in summer, with the influx of people, our call volume goes up during the summer.”
Russo said he is hoping the stipend will entice younger firefighters to join Longport’s volunteer service.
“It’s a small price to pay,” he said.
The board also introduced two bond ordinances to fund capital improvements for the municipality and utility.
The proposed $2.14 million utility bond will fund the construction of various improvements to the water and sewer system, including a new well, well house, sewer main replacements, along with planning and engineering, plans and specifications, and construction inspection and administration. The bond will also cover the purchase of a water/sewer jet totaling $60,000.
The bond will be paid back over the next 36 years.
The $1,543,000 capital bond will cover improvements to public buildings, recreation areas, Public Works vehicles and any soft costs totaling $1.34 million. The bond will also cover installation of a rescue boat lift, adapters for fire hydrants, eight sets of fire gear and other improvements to the firehouse totaling $142,000. The bond will also fund equipment for the Beach Patrol, including rescue boards and communication headsets totaling $11,600. The borough will also purchase a pickup truck for the Police Department, traffic control equipment, computers, rifles and other equipment totaling $131,000.
The bond will be paid back over the next 13 years.
Public hearings on the bond ordinances will be held 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 15.
