AVALON – The Avalon Borough Council introduced the 2022 municipal by title only at the February 23rd meeting of Borough Council and includes one of the lowest municipal tax rates in the State of New Jersey. The Avalon municipal budget includes important initiatives and policies intended to provide relief from inflation to residents of the community, especially senior citizens. They are:
- A two tenths of a cent decrease in the local purpose tax; Avalon has maintained or reduced the tax rate for seven consecutive years
- The creation of a $600,000 annual budgeted appropriation for emergency beach/dredging projects
- The continued elimination of all long term, general obligation debt
- A $14 million payment towards short term debt over two budget cycles
- Investments in public safety to sustain and recruit talented individuals for police, fire, rescue, and beach patrol
“We recognize that senior citizens are subjected to record-high inflation on the national level, so we worked extremely hard on a budget that provides and improves essential services in our community”, said Avalon Mayor Martin Pagliughi. “The budget is based on a ‘primary needs’ while addressing the absence of an adequate response to national inflation which impacts the goods and services we provide. It obligates us more than ever to validate every dollar spent in the best interests of our community”.
The 2022 municipal budget totals $32.6 million which is slightly lower than the budget from the prior year. The municipal tax rate in Avalon drops by two tenths of a penny to 19.7 cents. Avalon will collect $18,770,000 via taxation. The Borough ended 2021 with a surplus of $7.5 million, and maintains an AAA bond rating from Standard and Poor’s. In 2021 and 2022, Avalon eliminated nearly $14 million short term debt, with $6.8 million paid off this year.
Avalon has made significant investments in the Department of Public Safety over two budget cycles providing police, rescue, and lifeguards with appropriate salary adjustments to remain competitive in the public sector. “Public safety is the number one priority provided by municipal government”, Pagliughi said. “We will always make investments in public safety to retain and recruit the best individuals we possibly can in these departments”.
The budgets for the Beach Utility Fund and the Water and Sewer Utility Fund are both experiencing slight decreases in 2022. There are slight increases proposed for beach tags in the 2022 budget after prices were held steady last year. Avalon will conduct a backpassing beach fill project in spring, 2022. The Borough is going through the process of obtaining a community-wide dredging permit that will help both public and private interests. New streets and bulkheads will be finances by this budget, as well as the continued work on the Avalon Volunteer Fire House and the design and permitting for our extensive public access and resiliency improvements at Bay Park Marina.
A budget presentation and final vote by Council on the municipal budget is scheduled for March 23rd.
