RED BANK: MURPHY TOUTS LOWER COSTS
Governor Phil Murphy appeared at Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank Friday to tout an expected drop in healthcare insurance costs for New Jersey customers of Obamacare. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
RED BANK: TAX MAY RISE 7.7 PERCENT
By JOE FISHER
The average Red Bank homeowner would see a $150 property tax increase under a 2013 municipal budget introduced by the borough council Wednesday night.
The proposed $21.2 million spending plan would raise the municipal tax rate 7.7 percent, from the current 49.1 cents per $100 of assessed property value to 52.9 cents. That means the owner of a home assessed at the borough-average $396,000, stands to pay $2,095 for municipal services alone this year. The rate does not include school and county taxes.
The hit to the wallet is nearly triple the $56.50 2012 increase on the average home, then assessed at $401,000.
BOROUGH TRIMS A PENNY FROM LOCAL RATE
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s property tax won’t rise as much as expected this year.
Councilman Mike DuPont, chair of the council’s finance committee, says a penny has been trimmed from the increase anticipated as recently as two weeks ago.
That means the owner of a residential property assessed at the borough-average $401,000 will pay 1.4 cents more per $100 of value than last year, or a full-year increase of $56.50, DuPont said following the formal introduction of the $20.8 million spending plan Wednesday night.
LITTLE SILVER TAXES ON THE RISE
Little Silver’s tax rate is going up. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
A year after declining, taxes are about to rise in Little Silver.
The borough council introduced its 2011 budget Monday, a $10.1 million spending plan that will boost the tax rate 2.6 percent, or 1.3 cents per $100 of assessed property value. At 51.1 cents, that equates to a $65 annual increase for a home assessed at the town average $500,000, said Chief Financial Officer Laura Geraghty.
BOROUGH TOUTS HEALTH PLAN SAVINGS
Red Bank officials earlier this week approved a plan to stick with a municipality-based health insurance plan for 2010 after other insurers said they could not compete on the rates.
The Central Jersey Health Insurance Fund plan will cost the borough $2.7 million next year, after accounting for an expected dividend of $209,000, according to borough CFO Frank Mason,
That’s a 2.9 percent increase over the $2.62 million premium paid this year, after an identical dividend.
PRESS: HOLT HAS TIGHT REIN ON TOWN HALL
Congressman Rush Holt‘s town hall meeting on federal health coverage in Middletown Wednesday was a less raucous affair than the one held the night before in Red Bank by his House colleague, Frank Pallone Jr., today’s Asbury Park Press reports.
One reason: Holt held his in the 258-seat Middletown Arts Center. Another: Boy Scouts. The 12-district Democrat refused to take oral questions and instead had people write theirs down and drop them in boxes. Boy Scouts then chose the questions for Holt, according to the Press.