News
Municipal Tax Rate Drops In Little Silver
By Sherry Conohan
LITTLE SILVER - While the overall property taxes have gone up, the taxes to fund the municipal budget have gone down.
With the taxes for the county and schools included, which are going up, the taxes on a home with the average assessed value of $500,000 are increasing by $200 for 2010. The overall tax rate is $2.259 per $100 assessed valuation.
But the municipal tax rate is going down in 2010 to .498 of assessed value, compared to .512 of assessed value in 2009. That means that a house assessed at $500,000 would pay $2,490.00 in taxes for 2010, a decline of $20 from the 2009 figure of $2,510.00 Tax bills went into the mail on Monday, July 27.
The total appropriations in the municipal budget for 2010 are $10,007,836, a decrease of $307,703 from the appropriations of $10,315,539 in 2009.
The amount to be raised by taxes is $6,207,411.95, a drop of $2,991.25 from the $6,210,403.18 that was needed to be raised by taxes in 2009.
The savings were realized by cuts in the budget, the retirements of three borough officials - the chief financial officer and tax collector, the court clerk and the shade tree officer and property maintenance manager - all of whom were replaced by personnel with lower salaries, and outsourcing the fire prevention inspector job to Red Bank.
The borough adopted a capital improvements budget of $476,930, also a decrease from the previous year, for which $454,083 in bonds will be issued. The capital budget in 2009 was double that at $1,070,434.
The biggest chunk of the capital budget goes to road improvements - $326,500. The streets to be improved are Holly Drive, Pirates Cove, Eastview Avenue and Edgewood Avenue.
The balance of the capital budget will be spent as follows:
- $93,500 for the Police Department for the purchase of six mobile computers and a Ford Expedition;
- $26,155 for the purchase of fire equipment
- $18,375 for Department of Public Works equipment and ballfield upgrades, and,
- $12,400 for First Aid equipment.
