Lacey Taxes Would Go Up In Proposed 2023 Budget

LACEY, NJ — The average resident will be paying about $12 more per year if the proposed municipal budget is adopted next month.

The proposed 2023-24 budget for Lacey Township includes the hiring of new police officers and staff, a new firetruck and new police cars, and money towards the Board of Education to help offset some of their losses.

The general appropriations for municipal purposes are $39,147,112.52, Business Administrator and Municipal Clerk Veronica Laureigh said at the March 23 Township Committee meeting. The reserve for uncollected taxes is $1,400,850.48, bringing the total general appropriations to $40,597,963.

A public hearing on this budget will be held on April 27.

There is an increase of 49 cents on the assessed home of $300,000, meaning taxes go up $12.22 a month.

On a home assessed at $500,000, monthly taxes increase by $20.36.

The budget contains the hiring of five new police officers and additional staff in other departments, Laureigh said. There is the purchase of a new firetruck for the Forked River Fire Company and about eight police cars in addition to other items for the police department.

There is also $456,000 going to the Lacey Township Board of Education after their state aid was cut by nearly $4 million. With these funds, and if a bill restoring some state aid passes, the cuts will not be nearly as drastic as anticipated. Read more: $2.6M Of State Aid Restored To Lacey School District Budget

This money comes from the Lacey Municipal Utilities Authority, which as an autonomous body has the ability to transfer five percent of its funds to the township, but they have never taken advantage of it until the committee reached out to Chairman Jim Knoeller and asked if the MUA could afford to help the school.

Committeewoman PeggySue Juliano, who also works as a paraprofessional in the district, said that her fellow paras and the LTEA were very thankful for Knoeller's help, and she read a letter from the LTEA president thanking them.

This funding will be used to keep jobs - not administration jobs, but teaching and paraprofessional jobs, Mayor Tim McDonald said after meeting with Lacey Schools Superintendent Vanessa Pereira.