VENTNOR – Following a public hearing April 10, the Board of Commissioners adopted its 2025 municipal budget, which includes a 3.19-cent tax rate increase. The increase comes on top of a 7-cent tax rate increase last year. A homeowner with a house assessed at $500,000 will pay an additional $159 for municipal services this year.
During the public hearing, former Mayor Tim Kriescher questioned various line items in the budget and expressed concern about the increase in municipal debt.
“When (this administration) took office, there was a need to do a lot of capital improvements because things had not been completed in the years before that,” auditor Leon Costello said.
During their first term in office, the commissioners adopted five capital ordinances totaling about $25 million to fund much needed improvements.
Costello said the city implemented a long-term capital improvement plan to ensure debt service payments remained stable through the years.
“Another bond sale this year will save us money and lower the debt next year,” Costello explained. “We will have a bond sale every few years to ensure the amount paid out by taxpayers remains relatively consistent.”
Costello said capital improvements cannot be ignored or they become emergency appropriations down the road.
“We created a lot more ordinances to create infrastructure improvements during our tenure than other administrations have in the past for the sustainability of Ventnor in a mechanical way,” Mayor Tim Kriebel said.
Capital improvements are needed for installing pump stations, drainage issues in the low-lying Ventnor Heights area, roadway and building improvements and to purchase new equipment.
“That is being managed in a financially responsible way, so the taxpayer doesn’t see an increase over time, but the city benefits in a structural way,” Kriebel said.
Another big capital project coming into view is the federally mandated lead service line replacement project to ensure clean water is delivered to homes. Kriebel also said many of the capital improvement projects address “quality of life issues” that new residents have come to expect when they are investing money into rebuilding homes.
Costello said the city seeks grant funding to finance major projects and that the city’s bonding capacity is well below statutory limits imposed by the state.
“We could borrow a whole lot more if we needed to, but our approach has been conservative,” Costello said.
“We are not being frivolous in spending were being as surgical as possible,” Kriebel said.
Administrator Tom Ciccarone said bonding capital improvements over the long term allows future taxpayers to absorb some of the cost of improvements.
“You don’t want to impose those costs all on today’s taxpayers,” he said.
Kriescher thanked the city for using an increased amount of surplus funds to bolster the budget.
The city used $4.55 million in fund balance to reduce the increase, which is $550,000 more than it used last year. $3.1 million remains in reserve.
“I want to thank you for using the surplus for keeping the tax increase down a little more,” he said.
Commissioner of Finance Maria Mento said residential redevelopment added $39 million to the city’s total assessed valuation, which helped reduce the increase by about $500,000.
Every penny on the tax rate raises $221,000 in revenue.
Other cost increases are $313,000 for pensions, $270,000 for health insurance, and $100,000 for utilities. Salaries for police and firefighters are up 4.2%.
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