Trusted Local News

Tax Hike Included in 2025 Sea Isle City Budget

From left, Sea Isle City Mayor Leonard Desiderio, auditor Leon Costello and chief financial officer Jennifer McIver take a look at the newly adopted municipal budget.

City Council gave final approval Tuesday to a $32.6 million municipal budget that includes a tax increase of a little more than 4 percent for Sea Isle City property owners.

“This is a responsible budget that funds all city services, including all costs necessary to continue to keep the city clean, safe and well-maintained,” Mayor Leonard Desiderio said during the Council meeting.

Under the budget, the owner of a typical Sea Isle home assessed at $750,000 would pay an additional $136 in local property taxes annually.

Overall, the total annual local taxes on a $750,000 home would be $3,339, said Jennifer McIver, the city’s chief financial officer.

The local tax rate is increasing by 1.8 cents, or 4.3 percent, for 2025. The local levy is separate from school and county taxes. The owner of a $750,000 home will pay an estimated $6,990 in 2025 for combined local, school and county taxes, McIver said.

This is the second year in a row that local taxes will go up in Sea Isle, although 2024’s increase in the tax rate was considerably higher at 4.3 cents.

Although a tax increase is included in the municipal budget, the city’s water and sewer rates will remain the same for the 12th consecutive year.

Overall, Sea Isle remains in strong financial shape and entered 2025 with a budget surplus of more than $8 million, Desiderio said. Sea Isle also retains its coveted AA bond rating from the major credit rating companies.

“The budget has an excellent surplus position, which is vital to maintaining our outstanding Double A bond rating from the major credit rating agencies,” Desiderio said.

    Sea Isle will pay firefighters to work shifts at the firehouse to provide around-the-clock coverage.
 
 

In the area of public safety, the budget will continue to pay for firefighters to be on duty at all hours, City Business Administrator George Savastano said. The fire department is made up of volunteers, but for the first time in Sea Isle’s history the city provided round-the-clock, year-round coverage by paying firefighters to be on duty at all hours at the firehouse starting in 2024.

Having firefighters stationed at the firehouse round-the-clock leads to faster response times to fires and other emergencies.

Labor contracts, insurance, utility bills and equipment costs are among the expenses that are driving the budget higher in 2025 – an increase of about 1.4 percent over the $32.1 million municipal budget in 2024.

Leon Costello, Sea Isle’s auditor, explained that inflationary pressures in general are a major reason why the 2025 budget is higher than last year.

“Universally, there’s not a thing that hasn’t gone up. No matter what you’re doing, everything is going up,” Costello said of higher costs faced by Sea Isle and other towns.

The city plans to use $3.6 million of the $8 million budget surplus to help pay for the 2025 spending plan, leaving $4.4 million in reserve, which is more than the $4.1 million budget surplus that was left over in 2024.

During comments when the budget was introduced by Council in March, Desiderio said Sea Isle has benefited from shared-services agreements with several neighboring communities. Sea Isle will receive more than $500,000 from those agreements, he noted.

For instance, Sea Isle is providing municipal court services for Dennis Township under a four-year deal that began in February. Dennis Township will pay Sea Isle $115,000 in the first year, $120,750 in the second, $126,787 in the third and $133,126 in the fourth, according to the terms of the agreement.

MORE NEWS STORIES


Sunday, May 18, 2025
STEWARTVILLE

MOST POPULAR

Local News to Your inbox
Enter your email address below

Events

May

S M T W T F S
27 28 29 30 1 2 3
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30 31

To Submit an Event Sign in first

Today's Events

No calendar events have been scheduled for today.