RED BANK: "CRAZY" HEALTH COSTS DRIVE 8 PERCENT BORO TAX HIKE PLAN

Illustration from the 2026 Red Bank municipal budget presentation showing a breakdown of where the property tax money goes.

By BRIAN DONOHUE

Red Bank property owners will pay an average of $231 more in property taxes – a 7.7 percent increase – to support borough services under a 2027 municipal budget unveiled Thursday.

The municipal tax levy, or the amount paid by property owners to support municipal services, will rise $1.2 million to about $16 million under the plan.

For a property assessed at the borough average of $652,000, the proposed budget, along with spending plans introduced by the county and local school districts, would raise the property tax bill to $11,729.

At a budget hearing Thursday night, borough officials described their efforts to minimize the tax increase in the face of skyrocketing costs, particularly for employee health insurance and trash and recycling collection.

“The insurance increases statewide, nationwide, have just gone crazy,” said Borough Manager Jim Gant. “I mean, they have gone crazy. They’ve hit the school district, they’ve hit everybody particularly hard.”

RED BANK: TRASH COLLECTION COSTS UP 27 PERCENT

The $32 million spending plan was unveiled during a budget presentation at Borough Hall.

The Mayor and Borough Council are slated to vote on the introduction of the budget at their next meeting on April 9, with a public hearing and final vote on adoption scheduled for May 14.

“We made a lot of tough decisions in this budget, and tough decisions were obviously centered around the challenges that a lot of public entities are facing at this time,” Gant said. “We went back several times to our department heads and said, ‘tighten it up. Tighten it up.'”

Municipal spending represents about 25 percent of the typical property tax bill, with the bulk of money going to support the two school districts, along with county government. (See chart above.)

Gant and Chief Financial Officer Tom Seaman pointed to two main cost drivers creating a squeeze: a 17 percent increase in employee health insurance costs and a $300,000 increase in the annual cost of trash collection.

The total value of all assessed properties, due to both rising property values and new development, rose 7.7 percent in the past year.

That allowed officials to keep the borough tax rate stable.

But the amount any individual property owner will pay will rise depending on how much their assessment has risen.

“If your assessment stays flat, you won’t have an increase from the municipal part,” said Seaman, referring to the municipal portion of the tax bill. “It’s really hard to judge that because the assessor says maybe a third go up higher, some stay the same, some decrease the assessments.”

Numbers are subject to change as school and county budgets are finalized.

Nationwide, health insurance costs are skyrocketing amid the federal government’s apparent steadfast determination to do nothing about the problem.

Local governments and school districts across New Jersey are getting crushed by increases, with some districts facing increases of 30 percent or more.

Last month, the Red Bank Borough Board of Education introduced a budget that would increase the school tax portion of the average tax bill by 9.5 percent. That increase is also driven largely by the rising cost of employee health insurance, officials said.

The budget slide presentation can be found here. A pdf file of the slides can be downloaded here.

redbankgreen editor Brian Donohue may be reached via email at [email protected] or by calling or texting 848-331-8331.

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