By Stephen Appezzato
ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS – Borough documents confirm there were no discrepancies in borough funding and salaries as previously alleged in the lead-up to the 2024 election.
In The Two River Times’ Sept. 19 article “Atlantic Highlands Council Candidates Trade Barbs at Separate Kickoff Parties,” which profiled each candidate running for borough council this year, former council member and 2024 candidate Brian Boms was quoted at a Republican campaign event alleging funds set aside in 2022 for a new fire truck and surplus for the 2023 budget “disappeared.”
In 2021 and 2022 there were line items in the budgets to fund the purchase of a new fire truck. After this article originally went to print, Boms contacted The Two River Times and said at the time, the council planned to use $500,000 of debt falling off in 2023 to fund those appropriations. He said, based on the 2023 and 2024 budgets, the council in 2023 and 2024 did not set aside prior funding for this in their budgets, instead bonding for the funds.
In reviewing the borough’s surplus numbers across previous years, there are no discrepancies that indicate surplus set aside for 2023 disappeared. In fact, in 2023, the borough’s surplus funds were the second highest since 2018. In 2022 the account held $1,093,861, while in 2023 it grew to $1,347,319 – about $260,000 higher than its 2018 figure.
In analyzing salary ordinances across previous years, which determine pay for municipal employees and officials, the current administration did not raise their own salaries by 25%. Rather, the last time a salary ordinance was approved, increasing the maximum potential pay for the mayor and council, was during the previous administration in 2020. At the time, the maximum pay for mayor increased from $4,500 to $5,000 and for council member from $3,000 to $3,500. However, these increases were never implemented. Each year since the passage of this ordinance, resolutions were adopted shortly after the borough council’s reorganization meetings which set the mayor’s annual pay at $4,500 and councilmembers at $3,000 – the same allotments prior to the 2020 ordinance.
Lastly, according to the borough’s certified municipal finance officer, while technically the local municipal tax rate has decreased from 2020 to 2024, the net valuation taxable has increased year over year, which the governing body does not control. This rate trickles down from the Monmouth County Tax Board and is affected by increasing property values – a trend evident throughout New Jersey.
The Two River Times reached out to the Atlantic Highlands Republican Club through email for comment but did not receive a response by press time.
This article was updated Nov. 1.
The article originally appeared in the October 31 – November 6, 2024 print edition of The Two River Times.
