The Sea Bright Borough Council, above, introduced the 2010-11 municipal budget Tuesday night. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
The Sea Bright Borough Council unveiled i’s 2010-11 budget Tuesday, but it still isn’t quite up to snuff for Mayor Maria Fernandes.
She wants the $5.16 million fiscal plan trimmed by $90,000, which she says would equate to a zero increase for taxpayers.
That is on the municipal end of things, anyway.
Regional school budgets, which typically make up a large portion of tax bills, are yet to be finalized. Sea Bright sends students to Oceanport elementary schools and Shore Regional High School. At this point, Shore Regional’s proposed budget would raise Sea Bright taxes by 1.2 cents for every $100 of assessed property value.
Which is exactly why Fernandes wants to shrink the local government’s spending plan.
“We’re going to have an increase, but we don’t want it at the municipal level,” she said.
On Tuesday night, she pushed council members to take department heads to task and clip enough to bring the bottom line down to a level she’s satisfied with. The budget, as proposed, is $140,000 more than the current $5.02 plan.
“There’s always some extra somewhere,” she said. “If we all trim down a little bit, nobody will get hurt.”
Some council members argued that if there are more cuts, it’ll hurt next year’s bottom line if Gov. Chris Christie’s 2.5 percent tax levy cap is approved. And fixed costs drive a lot of the spending, such as pension contributions and insurance, said council president William Keeler.
“By no means, in any way, shape or form, is this budget gold-plated,” he said.
Fernandes still thinks there’s fat to be found, and expects it to be missing from the budget by May 18, when the public gets its chance to comment on it.
“Times are real tough out there. People are saying government is getting too big. Well guess what? We’re part of government,” Fernandes, a Democrat, said. “We have to control it at this level. It’s doable.”
