The Atlantic City Council held a budget work session Wednesday evening to review and make any changes to the proposed Fiscal Year 2016 budget, which amounts to a little more than $9-million. That’s about one-half million more dollars than last year, but according to City Administrator John Lund, while the budget has increased, the property tax asking, or levy, has actually gone down. He says the levy will decrease from 18-dollars per thousand dollars valuation last year, to $16.79/1,000 in the coming fiscal year, or a reduction of $1.21/per thousand dollars taxable valuation.

The reasons for the decrease include the elimination of Police and Fireman’s pension, for which he says a levy is no longer needed, and there are surpluses in the employee benefits and debt service funds, which the Department of Management wants the City to draw-down on. In addition, with the new bond, Lund says there shouldn’t be any increases in the debt service, and final payments are being made on other bonds that will give the City greater bonding capacity next year, if needed.

He said they will also be able to renew bonds, as necessary. Lund says he hopes the tax asking can remain stable now, since it’s been “all over the place,” for more than a dozen years.  The current 18-dollar levy is the highest assessed by the City in the last 14-years.  Lund says based on the rollback, a person with a $100,000 home will see a $50 dip in their property taxes from the City. He says with the City’s reserve funds “doing just fine,” there shouldn’t be a need for tax increases anytime soon.

The City Council will act on approving the Preliminary Budget during the meeting on Feb. 18th, and the Final Budget March 4th. The certified budget must be submitted to the State by no later than March 15. Lund says they should have no problem getting it in before that date.