Taxes Up In Proposed Ocean City Budget

OCEAN CITY, NJ — Property taxes are expected to increase under the upcoming year's budget, Mayor Jay Gillian said in his annual State of the City address on March 13.

A detailed budget presentation will be given at the March 27 City Council meeting. But Gillian shared some information about the $124.6 million budget at the latest meeting.

The proposed budget includes a 3.7-cent tax rate increase. This comes to an extra $242 a year on the average city tax bill - about $20 a month, Gillian said.

City employee contracts, including health benefits and pension costs, make up the bulk of Ocean City's spending, Gillian said. Costs continue to rise all over.

"The average sales price of a residential unit in 2010 was $580,000," Gillian said. "By 2024, it more than doubled to $1.3 million."

"The city team has been hard at work negotiating the best deals on employee benefits, cutting the capital budget, and trimming the operating budget," he said. "We continue to seek grant funding to offset costs. Not including more than $100 million in beach replenishment funding, we have secured more than $56 million in grants since I took office."

Gillian said he wanted to work with City Council to explore new methods for revenue to reduce the burden on taxpayers. One such suggestion was an occupancy tax on rentals, which was floated by City Council last year, but ultimately failed.

"Even with an increase in this year’s budget, our tax rate remains low," Gillian said.

The budget will be officially introduced at the April 10 meeting and will have a final vote on May 8.