Last month, Sea Bright Mayor Dina Long called a school-tax formula that would sock struggling residents with a 13-percent hike for sending their high schoolers to Shore Regional High School “painful before, but after Sandy, unbearable.”

Now, Assemblywoman Amy Handlin, right, has stepped up to bat for the storm-shattered borough, offering to find a legislative solution to ease such shocks in the future.

Handlin, a 13th-district Republican from Lincroft, appeared at Tuesday night’s council meeting, saying that she is aware of the “major burdens” the formula has imposed on Sea Bright, particularly in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

“It is crystal clear that given everything that has happened, we really need to look at it [the formula] with new eyes,” she said. “And by ‘we,’ I mean the state of New Jersey. I think it’s clear to everyone that there really is no legal solution here, but there may be a legislative solution.”

“My solution – in broad brush strokes – is to take a look at a bill that, for the first time, would attempt to work in the notion that when you have an ‘act of God’ resulting in significant economic harm, that should be taken into account and enable the affected municipality to either obtain emergency funding or to be freed from the onerous nature of the formula,” she said.

Handlin asked the council members if they believed this to be a reasonable way to go, and if they would be willing to work with her on it.

Councilman Marc Leckstein called the idea a “no-brainer,” while Councilman Read Murphy referenced Marianne McKenzie, special counsel for education issues in the borough, as the person most “schooled and scholarly” on the subject, and suggested she work hand-in-hand with Handlin.

“Assemblywoman Handlin and I have spoken frequently about this subject in the past,” McKenzie told redbankgreen, post-meeting. “It’s a unique situation, and this option is definitely worth exploring. Numbers are numbers, and the formula is what it is, so this might be another option to provide some relief.”

Handlin noted that her sessions in Trenton were winding down, and that her goal is to post a bill by the time the Assembly breaks for summer in the last week of June, but that it was unlikely to go up for a voted before the fall.

By JOHN T. WARD

On the agenda at Fair Haven’s borough council meeting Monday night: a budget that doesn’t raise taxes for the sixth consecutive year.

Borough Administrator Theresa Casagrande says her research shows only three of New Jersey’s 566 municipalities can claim such a record in recent history.

Jon Peters, the council president and head of the governing body’s finance committee, says the six-year string is the result of hawk-like attention to costs.

The $8.14 million spending plan, with $5.32 million to be raised from local property owners, comes with a tax rate of 45.7 cents per $100 of assessed value, down a hair from the 2012 rate of 45.8 cents.

For the owner of a home assessed at the current borough average of $550,678, that’s a total tab of $2,516.60, or about $6 less than than last year.

Still, increases in taxes at all other layers of government – local school, regional high school, Monmouth County, the county library and county Open Space budget – will boost the average bill by a total $372.51, to $13,348.43.

The borough budget is “a shining example of all that is right in local government financial management,” Casagrande said recently.

And it’s “not a one-year phenomenon,” said Peters. “We’ve crafted this over the past six or eight years. And every year it’s harder.”

Peter said the key is having “no fluff” in the budget, and then “carefully changing the way you provide services.” Example: Fair Haven’s 2011 departure from the trash-collection business. The borough negotiates a contract with a vendor, and pays the bill – $183,000 a year, plus the dumping fees at the county landfill – which taxpayers cover.

“That relieved me of the cost of replacing the trucks, maybe $800,000 in capital,” plus the costs of maintenance and repair, he said. Town officials report that residents are happy with the service.

In addition, Fair Haven and Rumson last year embarked on a local services swap, under which Rumson dumps its residential brush in Fair Haven for eventual transfer to Tinton Falls instead of making about 500 trips a year itself. Fair Haven gets park maintenance and road-cleaning from Rumson, and Rumson gets engineering work from Fair Haven’s in-house engineering office.

“You want to look around and see what you do well, what services you can provide to others,” Peters said. “We’re not trying to make money on this. You’re trying to share costs, and you want a good, long-term relationship.”

Luck plays into it, of course. While Sea Bright, Rumson and Little Silver were walloped by Hurricane Sandy, Fair Haven which fronts on the Navesink River at higher elevations than Rumson, was largely spared structural damage, with only five homes impacted. And Fair Haven is nearly free of the kinds of social services burdens that Red Bank officials bemoan as an unfair drain on its taxpayers.

Still, Fair Haven contends with some “vintage” infrastructure, said Peters. And with only six percent of the town’s overall valuation coming from commercial properties, and relatively little state aid filling in gaps in the budget, nearly the entire load falls on residents, Peters notes.

“I feel very much that I’m very much a steward of the town for the next generation,” says Peters, a finance professor at the College of Staten Island who moved into town in 1999 and is the council’s most senior member, with 10 years under his belt. “I feel very fortunate that I was given a town in good shape.”

Keeping a lid on the budget doesn’t get as much recognition as he’d like, but every year he steps up to the plate “trying to get a base hit,” Peters said.

“You want people to be confident that government can do a good job,” he said. “It’s not just about saving money, it’s keeping the town in good shape.”

Here’s the full agenda: FH council 051313

Championed by state Senator and Red Bank resident Jen Beck – who won her seat in 2007 after a battling an opponent she tagged as a fake farmer – the reform bill signed by Governor Chris Christie this month goes too easy on wealthy individuals, developers and owners of office parks who took advantage of the old law to duck some $95 million a year in local taxes, the Sledger says.

From the Sledger:

This law will trigger a package of rules, due in 2014, that will define who’s a farmer and who isn’t, which Sen. Jennifer Beck (R-Monmouth) says is the law’s real reform. Those rules, she insists, will ensure only legitimate, working farmers will qualify. Landowners who do bare-bones “farming” for cut-rate property taxes will be cut out.

The new law does have flaws.

The new income threshold is $1,000 a year. That doesn’t even keep up with post-1964 inflation. Raising it to $10,000, which is the level in New York, will eliminate many of the estates and offices, which aren’t likely to sell out to condo developers once their discounts disappear.

Landowners can still get tax breaks for selling $500 worth of firewood a year, an often-abused rule.

Also untouched: Farmers who claim the exemption but later sell their property to a developer are penalized with a “rollback” — three years’ full property taxes. That encourages developers to buy land and wait, often hiring a freelance farmer while the company pays minimal property taxes. Doubling the penalty — a six-year rollback, at least — would discourage land-banking and raise millions a year for other preservation programs.

That would mean amending the state constitution. That should be Beck’s next move.

It was a tale of two tax plans in Red Bank Wednesday night as the mayor and council advanced the 2013 budgets for both the municipality and RiverCenter on a relatively light agenda.

The borough budget – proposed at $21.2 million and containing a 7.7-percent tax increase, to 52.9 cents per $100 of valuation – was originally scheduled for an adoption vote at the session. An adoption vote is now anticipated at the May 8 meeting, said borough CFO Coleen Lapp.

Meantime, the spending plan, which would have the owner of a home assessed at the borough average $396,000 paying $2,054, is subject to possible changes, she said.

The spending plan for downtown promotion agency RiverCenter remained unchanged, as it has for at least five years, at $512,000, a feat that council members were quick to praise.

“We all offer our congrats on keeping your budget flat,” Councilman Ed Zipprich told Rivercenter operations director Jim Scavone, who was in attendance. “I think RiverCenter has done a really great job over the last several years at making sure there’s no increase to the budget, and that you continue to offer more and more events without spending money.”

Councilman Michael DuPont also cited RiverCenter for its role in the reducing the commercial vacancy rate in the business district.

“Over the course of time, our vacancy rate had exceeded double digits,” DuPont said. “But through your leadership, we’ve now got it below five percent.”

DuPont attributed the reduction in part to the council helping to streamline business applications and promote overall efficiency with businesses in the borough.

By JOHN T. WARD

A taxing season begins Monday night for commuters who use Route 520 to get into and out of Red Bank.

Following the evening rush, traffic across the twin decks of the bridge over the Swimming River, between Hance Avenue and the Garden State Parkway, will be narrowed from two lanes in each direction to one.

Those few souls who traverse the span on foot –  or use it for fishing and crabbing – will be entirely out of luck: no pedestrian access will be permitted at all.

“Motorists should expect delays and are encouraged to plan alternate routes for the next six months,” the county government says in a press release, which is an improvement from last month, when it was warning of an eight-month timetable.

Here’s the full announcement:

On April 15, the County will begin a project to replace the bridge decks on
the twin County Route 520, Newman Springs Road, bridges over the Swimming River between the
Garden State Parkway and Hance Avenue.

Motorists should expect delays and are encouraged to plan alternate routes for the next six months.

One bridge will remain open to vehicular traffic throughout the project, but traffic through the work
area will be restricted to a single lane in each direction. The initial shift of traffic lanes will take place
Monday, April 15 after the evening rush hour.

The posted speed limit will also be reduced to 25 mph during the bridge project. Pedestrian access
across the bridge and through the project site will not be permitted during the six month construction
time.

The existing concrete decks on both bridges will be completely removed and replaced by new concrete
decks and bridge railings of the same dimensions as existing. Work will include complete replacement
of the bridge approach slabs including the curb, sidewalk, and guide rail.

The county’s ongoing project to upgrade intersections along Newman Springs Road has been
completed in the area of the bridge project. Specifically, the area between Hance Avenue at the Tinton
Falls/Red Bank border to Phalanx Road in Middletown is complete. The work from Phalanx Road to
Holmdel-Keyport Road in Holmdel will continue over the next few weeks and includes upgrades to
crosswalks to make the intersections and traffic signal operations more accessible to individuals with
disabilities.

The New Jersey American Water Company work along Swimming River Road (County Route 50)
between Newman Springs Road in Middletown and County Route 537 in Tinton Falls/Colts Neck will
continue, but will not require any road closures.

The County’s Department of Public Works and Engineering is overseeing these projects.

Post-Sandy challenges continue to pile up for the ravaged beach community of Sea Bright, this time in the form of a school tax hike via the Shore Regional High School district.

Borough property owners can expect a 13-percent increase, to 54 cents per $100 of assessed value, meaning that the average home, assessed at $344,696, would pay $1,861 for high school alone.

The rate perpetuates the dramatic disparities in the amounts paid by each of the district’s three sending towns. Sea Bright would pay some $90,000 per borough student at the school, whereas Monmouth Beach, Oceanport and West Long Branch would pay just $12,000 to $13,000, said Mayor Dina Long.

As in the past, the figures are the result of a disputed regional school tax formula about which Sea Bright officials and residents have long complained. Moreover, said Long, they reflect pre-Sandy property assessments, and not the post-Sandy reality.

“The regional school tax formula has been a problem before,” Long told redbankgreen. “It was painful before, but now after Sandy, it’s unbearable.”

The increase, if adopted, would have Sea Bright paying 15 percent of the school’s $15.7 million budget, with West Long Branch paying 32.3 percent, Monmouth Beach 25.1, and Oceanport paying 15.8. However, each town face a differing rate change, with West Long Branch’s taxes increasing 5 percent, Monmouth Beach’s less than 1 percent, and Oceanport’s going down nearly 2 percent 1.9 percent.

 “This isn’t the school’s fault,” said Long. “The tax formula is created by the Department of Education, and then approved by the district. The major problem this year is the fact that the numbers represent pre-Sandy numbers, and don’t reflect the devastation our properties have seen across the board. We’ve lost 20 percent of our taxable base.”

According to Long, there are three possible solutions to the problem:  the state Education Commissioner could step in, legislation could be introduced to change the formula, or the school board itself could decide to change it.

Long said she made multiple efforts to change the formula as a member of the borough council, and has had no more success this go-around than in her past efforts.

Applying for a Community Disaster Loan, one potential measure that Long said has been brought to her attention by several sources, would provide an offset, but wouldn’t be the solution to the problem, she said.

“The only solution, as we see it right now, is to change the formula,” she added. “I don’t consider it fair that residents of Oceanport and West Long Branch are paying $12,000 to $13,000 a head, while we have to pay $90,000, especially now.”

In an effort to change the situation, Long said she has been working the phones, connecting with the Governor Chris Christie’s office and other state and county legislators, trying to hold a meeting as soon as this week to bring attention to the problem.

Though Long acknowledged that the other towns in the school system are sympathetic to Sea Bright’s cause, she said they are accepting of the formula and believe it to be something that just can’t be changed.

“It’s just another week in Sea Bright,” Long said. “We’re just rolling with the punches.”

By WIL FULTON

Six months after Hurricane Sandy walloped the region, Sea Bright officials find themselves in a disagreement with a state agency over the financial impact of the storm.

The dispute, centered on newly released New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (DCA)’s data on the extent of storm destruction in town, was one of a handful of post-Sandy issues that dominated Tuesday night’s council meeting.

“The DCA released some numbers that gave statistics from Sea Bright,” Mayor Dina Long told the audience, “and they said there were 574 homes with damage. Of those homes, 32 had major damage – damage between $8,000 and $28,000; and 63 homes suffered severe damage – over $28,000 worth of damage.

“Based on where I live, and what it cost to fix even my own house, I really feel like these numbers are not reflecting an on-the-ground truth,” she said.

Long said she “would like to make it a priority that we collect the accurate damage numbers from our residents, so we can show the state what the damages actually were.”

Long’s concern, and that of several residents who spoke on the matter, is that the DCA will make funding decisions based on “grossly underestimated” numbers, and that the town would in turn be under-compensated for it’s losses.

When a member of the audience asked her where the DCA’s numbers came from, Long replied “good question,” with a hint of frustration in her voice.

“They didn’t come from us,” added Councilman Read Murphy.

“We need to be able to demonstrate that these numbers aren’t accurate, and they certainly aren’t accurate in my perception,” Long said, before asking that residents volunteer to collect data reflecting what she repeatedly referred to as the “on-the-ground truth,” starting with gathering basic rebuilding data and metrics from affected homes.

Long also reported that she met last Friday with state Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin to confirm that the DEP Coastal Engineering crew was working on a fix for the breach in the sea wall in North Beach that caused a closure of Ocean Avenue last month.

But regarding other ocean breaches in the rock wall, and the Shrewsbury River’s overtopping of bulkheads, Long said Martin was “clear that they would work with us, but would like us to pursue federal funding sources for those projects, saying that the sea wall breaches are potentially addressable by FEMA, and the bulkheads would potentially be addressable by the Army Corps of Engineers.”

One resident inquired about the state of the town’s proposed locally-funded replacement to the failed Sheltering and Temporary Electric and Power, or STEP, program, which the borough scrapped last month.

“We were unsuccessful with FEMA and the STEP program,” Long said. “We were also unsuccessful running a local alternative, in that the funding would basically end up being $600,000 on the taxpayer dime, and we were unwilling to do that as a council.”

Long added, however, that she got on the phone to several charities,  including Sea Bright Rising, to try to secure a significant donation for the 130 properties targeted for inclusion in the failed FEMA program, and that officials of the charity were currently working on a solution.

Providing a silver lining to the meeting were Dan Kelly and Bill Crow from the Keith McHeffey Foundation, who organize an annual charity run in Sea Bright every March in honor of their friend, McHeffey, who died in the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center attack. They presented the borough with a $10,000 check during the public comment portion of the meeting.

“If it wasn’t for Sea Bright, we wouldn’t have had the race this year,” Kelly said. “We almost called it off for 2013. But the fire, police and DPW put extra time in and allowed us to hold the race in Sea Bright again this year. We netted about $9,000, so we decided to round up and present Sea Bright with a check for $10,000 tonight.”

Red Bank’s school board unanimously approved the borough’s 2013-2014 school budget at the Thursday night before a small group of residents and school officials at the primary school.

The spending plan weighed in at $13.2 million, up $522,503, or 4.1 percent, from last year. The increase might have topped 8 percent, had the district chosen to employ “banked cap,” a method that allows districts to exceed the state-mandated limits on budget growth, said Superintendent Laura Morana.

But “when we thought about the impact [the tax levy] would have on households, and families for community members in Red Bank, we decided it was too high,” Morana said. “We wanted to be responsive to the needs of our children – meeting their educational needs, having the appropriate personnel, supplies and technology – but at the same time, we needed to think about the members of our community, and really think about the impact on the community.”

According to Morana, the district was able to make up some of the difference by qualifying for several federal and state-sponsored aid programs.

Through the state, Red Bank will receive aid to accommodate the continuing influx of new students in the system in recent years, and the ripple effect as they travel through the grades. Enrollment Growth Aid and Adequacy Aid are two such programs, combining to bring $713,131 in to the school in 2013-2014 alone. Red Bank will also receive $619, 881 from the No Child Left Behind program, designed for disadvantaged students, and $192,561 from the IDEA program (Integrated Disability Education and Awareness), targeted for special-needs students.

The new budget means that the owner of a home assessed at last year’s average of $405,522, will see an increase of  $93.39 for the year. The new rate is 64.9 cents per $100 of assessed value.

According to Morana, the extra money is needed for such costs as adding an additional second-grade teacher as well as an additional fourth- and fifth-grade world languages teacher because of larger classes moving through the system. Morana also stressed the importance of integrating current technology into the classroom and putting computers and tablets in the hands of young students in order to prepare them for their future academic and professional endeavours.

“We need to prepare the district for online student assessments [which will begin in 2014-2015], but also to integrate modern technology into the classroom on a daily basis,” she said. “We’re just now getting the needed tools into our classrooms.”

Two views of the budget can be found here.

By SARAH KLEPNER

With six residents in the audience, Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High board of education ok’d a $16.9 million spending plan for 2013-’14 that increases taxes on Rumson property owners and reduces them for Fair Havenites.

For Rumsonites, the levy per $100,000 of assessed property value rises4.8 percent, or $18,59, to $407, said Business Administrator Frank Gripp. Fair Haven residents will see their bills decline 1.3 percent, or $5.30 per $100,000, to $391.

The apportionment is the product of a notoriously complex formula that takes into account factors such as property value changes and school population, among others. Following a trend of recent years, the split puts 72.5 percent of the burden on Rumson residents and 27.5 on Fair Haven residents, Gripp said.

The total levy increased by the maximum 2 percent allowable by law, to $15.6 million.

Gripp emphasized an expansion of the Chinese language program and called out safety and security as primary goals, reporting that the school will be installing a uniform lock system, numbering doors and classrooms on the outside of the building, and expanding the camera system, which is used by the school and local police.

Gripp also noted increased costs for healthcare insurance, worker’s comp benefits, and property insurance premiums.

One member of the public, Joe Kopel of Rumson, spoke during public comment. He raised a number of financial concerns, from handling of reserves to administrator salaries.

Here’s the user-friendly budget presentation prepared by the board: R-FH Budge 2013-14

Red Bank Regional’s board of education unanimously passed the district’s 2013-2014 budget last week, with no comment from the public.

The 50-minute meeting Thursday night was sparsely attended, with fewer than 10 in attendance, including staff and teachers.

This year’s budget is 1.5-percent smaller than last year’s, which amounts to shrinkage of just over $403,000, for total spending of $26.6 million.

Board officials attributed the shrinkage in part to cost-cutting measures, including the district’s participation in purchasing cooperatives for supplies and equipment, and several shared service agreements with neighboring districts and towns.

Mike Megill, finance committee chair, talked about producing the zero-based budget by going over every line item with  department supervisors. Noted items include the addition of an Italian teacher and the implementation of a new teacher evalution system.

“It’s a challenging process,” he said. State aid info only becomes available close to when the budget is due, and support from the state has dropped 33 percent since 2010, he noted.

Megill also detailed the complex formula for setting the cost-sharing portion for each of the three towns in the district – Red Bank, Little Silver and Shrewsbury. In addition to looking at the number of students attending from the town and property values, includes things like a line item for “personal property,” which refers to a town’s contribution to local infrastructure.

“It’s so archaic and goes back so far,”he said.

This year, the formula cranked out slightly different results for each town. Red Bank’s contribution declined an average per household less than $10 per year. Little Silver’s portion increased noticeably, about $90 per year. But it’s Shrewsbury’s part which went up the most: almost $160 per year.

Rates per $100 of assessed value:

Little Silver: $.55, up 1.6 cents
Red Bank: $.38, down 0.2 cents
Shrewsbury: $.58, up 3.4 cents

Shrewsbury board member Frank Neary said he was “constantly mindful  – I do get calls” about his town’s share, but attributed it to an increase in attendance from the borough. “There’s a lot of kids coming to RBR from Shrewsbury.”

A public meeting to answer questions about the budget is scheduled for April 9 at Shrewsbury borough hall.