Oceanport, Little Silver to receive over $500k in state aid for 2012

Under Gov. Chris Christie’s proposed Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 budget, all municipalities will be receiving the same state formula aid that they received under the State FY 2011 budget. The Borough of Oceanport will receive $542,848 in total formula aid, while the Borough of Little Silver will receive $585,662.

Oceanport will receive $24,461 in Consolidated Municipal Property Tax relief and $518,387 in Total Energy Tax Receipts Distribution, while Little Silver will receive $12,160 in CMPTRA and $573,502 in ETR. The statewide combined total of CMPTRA and ETR remains at $1.293 billion.

This budget, and the changes in state policy it represents, requires that municipal officials continue to actively examine a wide range of actions to control and reduce costs and take actions such as:

• Considering not only how services are provided, but the need for them;
• Sharing services with neighboring governments, schools and county agencies;
• Reviewing all employee contract and benefit policies for consistency with the economy and government financial conditions; and,
• Taking advantage of all opportunities to reduce costs before exercising their local authority to increase property taxes, subject to the two percent levy cap.

The budget proposal continues the Best Practice Incentive program to encourage municipal officials to adopt a range of “best practices” as an incentive to receive a full payment of CMPTRA and ETR state aid. In order to receive the final five percent payment, a municipality will have to certify that it meets a variety of best administrative, financial management or operational practices. The budget proposes that withheld funds be reallocated as rewards to municipalities that establish exceptional scores.

Additional Best Practices information will be released in the next few weeks.