Last year, Lakewood's Township Committee increased property taxes $4 million.
Following no substantial outcry, including no major impact at the election ballot, this year, the Township Committee is set to double down with a nearly $8 million increase to our property taxes.
In sum total, the average new duplex homeowners' property tax bill will see a $695 annual increase, a FAA News report reveals.
The total tax levy for the municipal budget for Fiscal Year 2023 was $79,172,923.65. The tax rate was $0.727. 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 '23 for an average new duplex in the Oak and Vine neighborhood, assessed at $577,200 was $13,645. Of this amount, $4,196.24 funded the municipal budget, $5,945.16 funded the school budget, $577.20 funded the fire budget, and $2,926.40 funded the county budget.
On Thursday night, the Township Committee voted to introduce the FY '24 budget.
The total tax levy for the municipal budget will be $87,031,508.98. The new tax rate will be $0.7807.
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 $197,746,147.80. Combined with the municipal budget, the total tax levy will be $276,919,071.45.
The total tax levy for FY '23 combined with the municipal budget was $257,332,100.71.
The total tax rate for our entire combined property tax bill for FY '24 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, 2023 is $11,147,557,300, the Tax Collector has estimated that the total tax rate will be $2.487. The actual total tax rate in FY '23 was $2.408, so this represents a $0.079 increase to the tax rate.
For FY '23, the Total Taxable Valuation of all taxable properties in Lakewood was only $10,886,899,800.00.
In sum total, the total annual tax bill for FY '24 for an average new duplex in the Oak and Vine neighborhood, assessed at $577,200 will be $14,339.376. Of this amount, $4,506.20 will fund the municipal budget, $5,956.704 will fund the school budget, $638.38 will fund the fire budget, and $3,238.092 will fund the county budget.
Year-over-year, the total increase will be $694.38, of which $309.96 will go to the municipal budget, $11.54 will go to the school budget, $61.18 will go to the fire budget, and $311.69 will go to the county budget.
A big reason for the increase 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 29 new commercial buildings around town. This resulted in a loss of over $6.88 million in tax revenue for this year alone. (Last year's tax cuts only amounted to $5.77 million).
The Township Committee has granted 5 year tax abatements / Payments in Lieu of Tax (PILOT) to 13 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 $267,191,000.00 and would have paid a total of $6,316,395.24 in taxes for FY '23, however due to the abatements they are paying only $778,630.09, which is a non-payment of $5,537,765.15.
The Township Committee has also granted long-term tax abatements / Payments in Lieu of Tax (PILOT) to 16 properties, mostly located in the Cedarbridge Corporate Campus. These properties are assessed at a total of $139,912,000.00 and would have paid a total of $3,307,519.68 in taxes for FY '23, however due to the abatements they are paying only $1,972,359.61, which is a non-payment of $1,335,160.07.
In total, the Township Committee last year granted tax abatements to 29 properties. They are assessed a total of $407,103,000 and would have paid a total of $9,623,914.92 in taxes for FY '23, however due to the abatements they are paying only $2,750,989.70, which is a non-payment of $6,872,925.22.
This is an increase from the amount of tax cuts the Township Committee granted last year. For FY '22 the Township Committee 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, however due to the abatements they payed only $2,829,569, which is a non-payment of $5,775,794.66.
Our taxes are once again increasing to make up for the lost revenue.
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2 comments:
Where does this money go? Do we have anyone fighting for the middle class? These property taxes are outrageous?!!! And how many ppl have tax free homes ?
We have tax free homes because you have a bunch of circus clowns runng the show.The biggest ring leader is our Township Officials who do not do their jobs.But then again keep it quiet I won't say anything.See how it works.
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