LAKEWOOD'S TOWNSHIP COMMITTEE AGAIN INCREASES TAXES "TO MEET THE CONTINUED GROWTH OF THE POPULATION"

The goings have really gotten tougher for Lakewood Township's finances, thanks to all the tax abatements and growth of municipal services due to the continued growth of the population (which the Township's 2017 Master Plan highly lauded).

The tough finances will now be felt in our pockets.

The Township Committee today unanimously approved an even higher tax increase than what they voted on last month.

As previously reported here on FAA News, the Township Committee last month introduced the FY '23 budget with a tax levy of $78,472,923.65 - a $3,235,497.27 increase from last year's tax levy.

Today, the Township Committee unanimously approved an additional increase of $700,000 to the tax levy, for a total of $79,172,923.65.

This means that everyone's property tax bill will go even higher.

A big reason for the increased in taxes is due to all of the short and long-term tax abatements that the Township continues to grant.

Lakewood's Township Committee this past year granted short and long-term tax abatements to 36 new commercial buildings around town. This resulted in a loss of over $5.77 million in tax revenue for this year alone.

The total tax levy for the municipal budget for Fiscal Year 2022 was $75,237,426.38. The tax rate was $0.701. This is the amount in taxes that you pay per $100 of your property's assessed value.

Based on this rate, the total annual tax bill for FY '22 for an average new duplex in the Oak and Vine neighborhood, assessed at $577,200 was $13,050.49. Of this amount, $4,046.17 funded the municipal budget, $5,893.21 funded the school budget, $467.532 funded the fire budget, and $2,643.576 funded the county budget.

At last month's meeting, the Committee introduced the proposed FY '23 budget with a tax levy of $78,472,923.65, resulting in a tax rate of $0.721.

Under this proposal, the total annual tax bill for FY '23 for a similar new duplex would be $13,610.376, which represents a $559.88 increase. Of this total amount, $4,161.61 would fund the municipal budget (an increase of $173.16 from FY '22), $5,945.16 would fund the school budget (an increase of $51.95 from FY '22), $577.20 would fund the fire budget (an increase of $109.67 from FY '22), and $2,926.40 would fund the county budget (an increase of $282.83 from FY '22).

However, today, the Committee approved the final budget with a tax levy of $79,172,923.65, thus increasing the tax rate to $0.771.

The difference is quite substantial. In fact, it's a $288.61 increase!

The total annual tax bill for FY '23 for a similar new duplex will be $13,898.976, which represents a $848.49 increase. Of this total amount, $4,450.21 will fund the municipal budget (an increase of $288.60 from FY '22), $5,945.16 will fund the school budget (an increase of $51.95 from FY '22), $577.20 will fund the fire budget (an increase of $109.67 from FY '22), and $2,926.40 will fund the county budget (an increase of $282.83 from FY '22).

This increase would not be necessary had the Township Committee not granted numerous long and short-term tax abatements this year.

The Township Committee has granted 5 year tax abatements / Payments in Lieu of Tax (PILOT) to 21 properties around town. (These properties pay 0% the first year, and then slowly increase 20% each year for the next 5 years). These properties are assessed at a total of $240,345,500.00 and would have paid a total of $5,410,177.21 in taxes for FY '22, however due to the abatements they are paying only $1,038,855.26, which is a non-payment of $4,371,321.95.

The Township Committee has also granted long-term tax abatements / Payments in Lieu of Tax (PILOT) to 15 properties, mostly located in the Cedarbridge Corporate Campus. These properties are assessed at a total of $147,593,100 and would have paid a total of $3,195,186.45 in taxes for FY '22, however due to the abatements they are paying only $1,790,713.74, which is a non-payment of $1,404,472.71.

In total, the Township Committee has granted tax abatements to 36 properties. They are assessed a total of $387,938,600 and would have paid a total of $8,605,363.66 in taxes for FY '22, however due to the abatements they are paying only $2,829,569, which is a non-payment of $5,775,794.66.

This is an increase from the amount of tax cuts the Township Committee granted last year. For FY'21, the Township Committee granted tax abatements to 32 properties. They are assessed a total of $241,418,100 and would have paid a total of $5,485,019.23, however due to the abatements they paid only $1,235,226.99, which is a non-payment of $4,249,792.24.

Had all these properties been assessed their full taxable value, our taxes would have actually decreased. Instead, our taxes are increasing to make up for the lost revenue.

This municipal budget is only one of 4 portions of our single tax bill, which also the budgets for the Lakewood Board of Education, Fire District, and Ocean County. Not all of these budgets have been finalized yet. However, the Township estimates the total tax levy of these other budgets to be $178,159,177.06. Combined with the municipal budget, the total tax levy will be $257,332,100.71

The total tax levy for FY '22 combined with the municipal budget was $246,969,170.14.

The total tax rate for our entire combined property tax bill for FY '23 has not yet finalized by the Township Tax Collector, however, based on the Total Taxable Valuation of all taxable properties in Lakewood, which, as of October 1, 2022 is $10,886,899,800.00, the Tax Collector has estimates that the total tax rate will be $2.408. The actual total tax rate in FY '22 was $2.261, so this represents a $0.147 increase to the tax rate. (Under the Township's introduced budget, the total tax rate was $2.358, which equated to an increase of only $0.097 to the budget).

For FY '22, the Total Taxable Valuation of all taxable properties in Lakewood was only $10,744,753,700.00.

Prior to voting to adopt the budget, members of the public opposed the tax increase, calling for the Committee members to stop increasing their salaries.

Mayor Coles stated that the continued tax increases are because the police department and public works departments have needed to grow to catch up with the continued growth of the Township's population.

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