At the last council meeting, I provided council with the city budget; and two days after that presentation there was a public workshop to go over the details. I want to commend council on their thorough review of the budget; and I want to commend city staff, particularly our CFO, Paula Doll, for all of the efforts that went into developing the budget.
The budget that council will be asked to introduce today includes a very slight rate increase of about a quarter of a penny. For the average home in Sea Isle City, that translates into about 17 dollars per year – less than a nickel a day.
I know we don’t want increases, but this is responsible financial management. We do have new obligations in the form of additional protected beaches at the north end of the City, and a new program to pay for stipends for our volunteer fire department to be on site at critical times during the year. In addition, all of the other services and projects we have planned and come to expect will be properly funded.
Finally, when you consider our budgets over a four year period, the tax rate included in the budget for introduction today is still slightly less than it was four years ago, due to a rate decrease two years ago. This is a budget we can all be proud of, and I ask that council introduce it today.
Turning to the pandemic, we continue to work with our residents to assist anyone who is having difficulty in registering for the vaccine. As a reminder, we’ve established a program where residents can call the City’s Welcome Center and one of the Community Services staff members will guide them through the process to ensure they are registered.
So far, we’ve fielded over 40 calls for assistance and registered 22 people on the state’s online system. I want to remind everyone that we don’t have the ability to fast track vaccines; and I ask everyone to be patient as we work with our state and federal agencies to try to get more supply of the vaccine; and again, please remember – we’re one Sea Isle City and together we will be stronger than ever.
Mayor Leonard C. Desiderio
