OCEAN TOWNSHIP — Larry S. Loigman, a township resident,
had a proposal to help keep Ocean's municipal taxes down:
seeking retribution from former Mayor Terrance D. Weldon,
for money misspent.
"If that guy stole from the township, shouldn't we get
money back from him?" asked Loigman, a frequent critic
of the township administration who spoke Wednesday at the
Township Council's budget hearing. "He must have some
money; he must have some assets, if he's still walking around."
"There have never been public dollars compromised,"
said Township Manager David R. Kochel, adding that Weldon
pleaded guilty to extorting bribes from developers, not stealing
from the municipal treasury.
Nevertheless, Township Attorney Richard English said the township
may go after former township auditor, Louis Gartz. Gartz,
who worked for 25 years for the township and has admitted
that he bribed Weldon to keep his firm's job. If the state
revokes Weldon's pension, he said, the township may be compensated.
Weldon is free on bail.
Until then, the township has to go on with its normal budgetary
process. On Wednesday night, the council adopted the 2005
budget of $25,798,480.73, which requires a municipal tax rate
increase, the first in 13 years.
To support the $12,835,061.01 in taxation, the municipal tax
rate will be 28.4 cents per $100 of assessed property value,
compared with 59.4 cents last year, Kochel said.
The township went through a new property revaluation and the
municipal tax increase is different for each property. The
value of all properties in the township have gone from $1.9
billion to $4.5 billion.
The council could not give an overall percentage figure for
the tax increase.
For every tax dollar collected in Ocean Township, public schools
receive 66 cents, Monmouth County 18 cents and the municipal
government 16 cents.
The township didn't increase the municipal tax rate for 12
years, Kochel said, but the costs of salaries and wages, health
and liability insurance, employer pension and solid waste
disposal have increased.
The 2005 appropriations include $19,540,103 in municipal operations,
$309,635 in capital improvements and $1,903,965 in municipal
debt service and $3,034,937 in reserve for uncollected taxes.
The township has increasingly been using money from the surplus.
This year, it is using $6,213,024 in surplus funds.
Last year, Ocean spent 6.7 million from surplus for the total
budget of $23.7 million, Councilman Chris Siciliano said Tuesday.
Also supporting the 2005 budget is $2,766,187 from various
municipal revenues, $3,484,208 from state aid and $500,000
from delinquent taxes.
"We are not anticipating any tax shock in next year's
budget," Kochel said.
