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Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save OCEAN CITY — City Council introduced a $112.5 million budget Thursday after hearing complaints from some residents about city taxes. Two Council members, Dave Winslow and Keith Hartzell, said they planned to continue to study the proposal before a public hearing and final vote May 8.
City Finance Director Frank Donato and auditor Leon Costello said council could amend the budget Thursday or at the final vote, but if an amendment changed any line item by more than 10%, the budget would need to be advertised again and a new public hearing and final vote scheduled. City resident Dave Hayes criticized Mayor Jay Gillian and the tax increases over the past three years. “He talks about all the wonderful facilities for the community’s young people, while at the same time driving out families with higher taxes,” Hayes said, adding the tax increases would impact seniors in the community.
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Ocean City school officials say this has been a tough budget year. The Board of Education introduced a 2025-26 school budget that includes a tax hike. Gillian is in his fourth term as mayor, with his current term up next year, at the same time as the three at-large City Council members.
Breeden is listed as the president of the organization Fairness in Taxes, but he made no mention of that affiliation at the meeting. As part of his comments, Breeden called on council to enact a hiring freeze for city workers and the adoption of a nepotism policy. The administration did not respond to the criticisms, but Donato did address concerns about increasing costs to seniors.
He advised seniors to reach out to the city for information about applying for a senior tax freeze program offered through the state. There are income requirements and other qualifications, he said, but city staff can help residents through the application process. The budget as introduced is down slightly from what had been originally presented.
Donato said that was because the original budget kept the same number for incoming grants as last year, to allow a clearer comparison of spending levels. But the city does not yet know all of the grants it will receive this year, so the budget as introduced only includes the grants currently approved. If approved as proposed, the budget would increase taxes by 3.
7 cents for every $100 of assessed property value, the same increase the city saw last year. “The average city tax bill would increase by $242 under the budget, about $20 a month,” Gillian told council members when he presented the budget at a previous meeting. Ocean City expects to undertake a revaluation soon, with many real property values close to double their current assessments.
The proposed tax rate is 57.16 cents for every $100 of assessed value, with the total assessed value of the shore town now over $12.9 billion.
The calculation Gillian cited would put the average assessed value of an Ocean City property a little above $650,000. Using that number, the proposed budget would mean an average property tax bill of $3,715.40 for city taxes, which does not include school and county taxes.
In Ocean City, the local purpose tax makes up about half of the total property tax bill. Contact Bill Barlow: 609-272-7290 [email protected] Twitter @jerseynews_bill Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.
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