Seaside Park, N.J. (Photo: Daniel Nee)
Seaside Park officials have introduced the borough’s 2025 operating budget, which will see local property taxes rise in the face of significantly-increased costs of employee healthcare coverage, state-mandated pension contributions and general insurance costs.
The borough’s $13,050,222 budget, introduced last week, will be supported by a local tax levy of $7,959,710, officials said. This represents and increase of 4.4 cents per $100 of assessed real estate value – the same increase as last year. For the owner of a home assessed at $500,000, local property taxes would rise by $218.96. That amount does not take into account school or county taxes, which are outside of the local government’s control and could rise or fall depending on the budgets of those agencies.
“Every year, our budget hurdles are insurance, healthcare and pension costs,” said CFO Joyce E. Tinnes. “Those are the three biggest increases we see every year.”
This year, the town saw health insurance costs rise by $274,000, police and fire pension payments rise by $44,760 and general liability insurance premiums rise by $58,000. Workers’ compensation insurance rose at a much lower pace due to a positive safety record, however that policy has also crept up by more than $200,000 since 2022. One anomaly was a slight decrease in non-police pension contributions, which was reduced slightly because of recent retirements.
Tinnes said inflation led to costs that rose 23 percent between 2020 and 2025, driving the overall cost of goods, labor and most other items to new highs.
“We’re trying to avoid going up that high, bit things cost money – gas fluctuates, things like that,” she said.
Seaside Park will also increase its contribution toward the Tri-Boro First Aid squad from $75,000 to $125,000, the maximum allowed by law.
Borough officials have closed one loophole that held back some revenue in the past: beach badge sale processing fees. Borough Administrator Karen Kroon said the borough will use a new system to process credit card and digital payments of beach badges this season which will see buyers pay the processing fee of 2.6 percent of the purchase price plus a flat 10 cent fee. Previously, the borough paid the processing fees as part of the overall cost of badges. The new system will also allow the revenue collected from beach badges to be transmitted to borough accounts daily.
A formal public hearing on the budget will be held May 1, 2025 at 7 p.m. in the council chambers, after which it is expected a second vote on final adoption of the spending plan will be held.
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