CREST HAVEN – The county commissioners have adopted the county’s $224,214,703 budget for 2025.

The budget, approved on Tuesday, March 25, appropriates about $2.5 million more than 2024’s, despite there being a tax rate decrease – the third consecutive decrease in three budgets.

The county tax rate in 2025 is 0.169 per $100 of assessed value as opposed to 0.188 in 2024, a difference of just under 2 cents. The owner of a home assessed at $500,000 would save about $95 in county taxes in 2025 compared to the previous year.

County officials have said that, if they’d kept the tax rate flat over the past three budgets, the county would have collected another $64 million in property taxes. They said they elected not to collect that amount in taxes, which they said could have easily been spent on pet projects or in other ways. They credited good financial management for the reduced tax rate.

The county anticipates having a $21 million surplus in the 2025 budget.

On a lighter note, three routine resolutions on the March 25 agenda were obviously cut and pasted onto the agenda document; a common practice where items are repeated year after year. The names of two former commissioners, Jeffrey Pierson and E. Marie Hayes, were inadvertently left on the agenda, where the commissioners’ votes are recorded.

Pierson, when last heard from, is enjoying retirement in Florida. Hayes is now serving as the Cape May County judge surrogate and happened to be attending the March 25 meeting. For the record, Hayes did not vote on the resolutions, and was unaware her name was on the agenda until after the meeting ended.

Contact the reporter, Christopher South, at csouth@cmcherald.com or 609-886-8600, ext. 128.