'I promise never to do that to anybody,' he said. On Tuesday, the mayor said he would continue to spread out smaller tax increases annually to avoid shocking residents on their tax bills with a large, unexpected spike. The ramifications of the referendum and resulting tax increase led to Ducey's election months later to the Township Council and a team of Democrats wresting control of the Township Council from Republicans.ĭucey has since referred to the previous administration's spending habits as 'unrestrained.' At the time, township officials said that if the referendum did not pass, 172 municipal employees, including 27 police officers, would lose their jobs and township-run garbage collection would be privatized. In 2011, following a narrowly passed referendum to exceed the state-mandated 2% cap on tax levy increases, Brick's municipal tax rate jumped by 24%. Want to buy a school? Brick trying to sell former Laurelton School again Ocean County crime: Lakewood and Jackson terror suspect, facing possible life sentence, jailed pending trial Ducey said it represents a better strategy than holding down tax increases for years, then surprising residents with a sudden jump on their tax bills. The township also started using paid EMTs to answer first aid calls and was forced to hire additional building and inspection personnel in the years after superstorm Sandy, he said.ĭespite the increases, the mayor said his administrative team has worked to stabilize tax increases to small, annual amounts.

In the past nine years, the police department's officer ranks increased from 123 to 146 in response to the region's opioid epidemic and other safety needs, he said. We don't have a choice with regards to the pension contributions (which are determined by state officials).' 'Luckily, we were at the stage of only having to increase 1.9 cents …It takes a lot of work from all the department heads to make their budgets smaller, because we need things like public safety. 'If we didn't make cuts and didn't use the surplus… our taxes would have gone up… 3.2 cents (per $100 of assessed value),' Ducey said during Tuesday's meeting of the Township Council. With the increase, the municipal portion of the tax bill on the median Brick home would be $1,928 for the year.

The increase will raise the municipal tax bill about $4 per month, or about $48 annually, on the median assessed home in Brick, worth $251,800, Ducey said. As a result, municipal taxes will rise 1.9 cents, to 76.6 cents for each $100 of assessed property value.

Brick township tax collector