Ocean City Budget Introduced Thursday Night

OCEAN CITY, NJ — There was about a $1 million difference between the budget introduced at the Ocean City Council meeting on Thursday night and the draft budget presented to council last month.

The $78.8 million budget introduced on March 22 would raise the local tax rate by a penny, ocnjdaily.com reports. The reduction from the $79.9 million draft budget is because the amount of grants the city received through the first few months of this year is about $1.7 million less than last year at the same time.

The owner of a $500,000 home in Ocean City could expect to pay an extra $50 in municipal taxes in the upcoming year if the budget passes. This remains the same as the tax increase from the draft budget.
Ocean City Council will now have the budget for about a month before the public hearing and final vote, scheduled for April 26.

The budget will be used to fund capital improvement projects throughout the island that have been in demand for some time. In that vein, Ocean City Council adopted the administration's $100 million, five-year capital plan at its Feb. 8 meeting. A copy of the capital plan presentation and related documents are available at www.ocnj.us/projects.

Patch file photo