By NANETTE LoBIONDO GALLOWAY
MARGATE Taxpayers in the city can rest assured that their taxes won't increase this year. In fact, they will be going down a bit. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw many towns struggling with added unreimbursed expenses, Margate's added ratables ensured taxes remained stable.
Chief Financial Officer Lisa McLaughlin presented a budget overview during the March 4 Board of Commissioners meeting. The tax rate will decrease to $.6164 from $.617 per $100 of assessed valuation. A homeowner with a house assessed at $350,000 will pay $2,157 for municipal taxes, $2.22 less than last year.
Auditor Leon Costello of Ford-Scott Associates of Ocean City said there were no gimmicks in the budget. The budget is $1.7 million below the state-imposed spending cap, and $1.1 million below the tax levy cap.
You have the ability to levy another $2.8 million in taxes and spend another $2.3 million in expenditures, Costello said. You are so far under the two state cap laws, it's astonishing.
The tax levy is $23,403,515, up $246,284 from last year, but the city's total net valuation of $3,797,014,200 is up $49.8 million over last year. The city also applied $673,000 more in surplus funds, for a total of $3,913,000 to stabilize the budget, McLaughlin said. Nevertheless, the city maintains a healthy balance of $4.1 million in reserves.
In spite of all our challenges over the last year, we remain fiscally responsible, McLaughlin said. Our salary and wages are down $22,000 due to contract negotiations over the past several years. There's been an extension in the step increases and employees are being hired at a lower rate and it takes a longer amount of time to achieve the maximum salary.
Longtime employees are being replaced with employees at a lower salary, she said.
A public hearing on the budget will be held 4 p.m. Thursday, April 1.
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