STONE HARBOR – The New Jersey Department of Community Affairs issues an annual best practices inventory to all state municipalities as a way of assessing each municipality’s compliance with various laws and as a measurement tool of a town’s implementation of fiscal and operational best practices.

The inventory is linked to state aid, with threshold scores that a municipality must meet in order to receive full or partial state municipal aid for the coming budget year.

At the Oct. 21 meeting of the Borough Council, Chief Financial Officer Cynthia Lindsay told the governing body that the borough had submitted its survey results with a score of 40 out of a total possible score of 43.5. The inventory survey contains 70 questions across a range of issues and practices. The emphasis in the questions changes annually.

In 2025, municipalities need a score of 32 or higher to receive their full measure of state aid. A score of 23 or lower sees all aid withheld. Ranges between full aid and no aid have scores that can allow a percentage of aid to flow.

The subject areas for questions range from budget and capital projects to technology, procurement, financial administration and others. The annual survey has been issued since 2010.

Contact the reporter, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.