Sea Isle City Municipal Auditor Leon Costello and Chief Financial Officer Jennifer McIver review the 2026 budget.
Sea Isle City homeowners will see their tax bills go up by nearly 1.7 percent under the newly adopted $34.4 million municipal budget for 2026.
The local tax rate will increase by three quarters of one cent. That will translate into an additional $55 in local property taxes annually for the owner of a typical Sea Isle home assessed at $750,000.
Overall, the total annual local taxes on a $750,000 home would be $3,393, said Jennifer McIver, the city’s chief financial officer.
When county and school taxes are included, the total tax bill for the owner of a $750,000 home would be an estimated $6,984 annually, McIver said.
McIver attributed the city’s tax increase to inflationary pressures on an array of municipal expenses, including healthcare, insurance, utility bills, tariffs and the higher cost of products in general.
This is the third 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. The tax increase in 2025 was a 1.8-cent hike.
Although a tax increase is included in the 2026 municipal budget, the city’s water and sewer rates will remain the same for the 13th consecutive year.
“As we’ve previously discussed, both budgets have an outstanding surplus position and will fund all of the services our citizens have come to expect,” Mayor Leonard Desiderio told City Council during its April 14 meeting.
Sea Isle entered 2026 with a surplus of more than $9 million, giving the city a big cushion in the budget, McIver said. The city will use $4.5 million in surplus funding for the budget.
Voting 5-0, Council gave the municipal budget final approval at its April 14 meeting. There were no comments from the Council members.
Desiderio said the record-high budget surplus is a sign of Sea Isle’s strong financial position overall. The surplus is a key factor that Wall Street companies such as Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s consider when they evaluate the soundness of Sea Isle’s bonds.
“The budget represents sound financial planning,” Desiderio said.
In other business, Council President Mary Tighe announced that the governing body will begin livestreaming its meetings to the public beginning April 28.
Meetings will be livestreamed on YouTube and posted on the city’s website at https://www.seaislecitynj.us/.
Livestreaming will give members of the public the option of watching online instead of having to show up in person to participate in the local government.
Councilman Ian Ciseck, who joined the governing body last July after winning election in 2025, pushed for livestreaming to expand public access and participation in the meetings. He believes livestreaming is a way to create more government transparency.
Sea Isle usually holds its Council meetings twice a month on Tuesdays at 10 a.m. Ciseck said members of the public often cannot attend meetings on Tuesday mornings because they are at work.
Ciseck believes the public will enthusiastically support livestreaming. He said livestreaming would give an opportunity “for everyone to see, for everyone to hear” the meetings without having to be there in person.
