Brick Seeks Extension On Emergency Sandy Loan Repayment

BRICK, NJ -- The ongoing financial impact of Superstorm Sandy has Brick Township officials asking the state to extend the repayment period on emergency loans the township received to cover cleanup costs.

The Brick Township Council approved a resolution Tuesday night asking Gov. Chris Christie and the State and Local Finance Board, to consider options to assist Brick and other towns by extending the repayment period to 10 years.

Officials in Berkeley Township passed a similar resolution recently, seeking to extend the repayment period from five years to 10 on the emergency loans.

Brick, which suffered over $126 million in damages from the storm, was one of the most affected towns in the state, officials said. The township lost more than $800 million in ratables immediately following Sandy and of those, $357 million still have not been returned to the tax rolls, officials said.

Brick is due to repay $6.9 million in Sandy loans this year, Mayor John Ducey said Tuesday night at the council meeting, which would have a 6.7-cent impact on the tax rate. Township officials have made a number of cuts to reduce the impact of Sandy-related expenses, he said, but the township is asking the state to extend the term to lessen the tax impact of the loan repayments.

Extending the term to 10 years would cut the loan repayment amount in half, Ducey said, with a resulting tax impact of slightly more than 3 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.

“Three years after Sandy, nearly half of the ratables we lost are still not on the tax rolls,” Ducey said. “Each year we do more with less and identify ways to cut costs to minimize the impact on taxpayers. We need the state to recognize this hardship and help us by extending the time for repayment. This is a fair solution for towns that are still rebuilding.”

A copy of the council’s resolution is being sent to Christie, U.S. Sen. Cory Booker and the Local Finance Board, officials said.