City Council will go to work next Thursday (Feb. 19) on a proposed 2015 municipal budget that would raise the tax rate by 1.32 percent.
The budget at this stage is a work in progress, and City Council will not approve a final version until the spring. A public workshop at 6 p.m. Thursday at City Hall will include presentations from Mayor Jay Gillian’s administration on projected revenue and projected expenses.
The presentations had been scheduled separately, but Council President Tony ‘Wilson announced that a Feb. 18 workshop will be cancelled and both will be held the following night.
Gillian introduced the draft budget on Thursday (Feb. 12).
The owner of a $500,000 home in Ocean City would see an increase of $26.40 in municipal taxes if the budget were approved as is.
With a three-year, in-house program to reassess 17,000 properties in Ocean City now complete and with the real estate and construction markets stabilizing, the city’s ratable base (total combined value of taxable real estate) rose by 1.03 percent to $11.3 billion.
With more real estate value to tax, Ocean City can keep its tax rate low. The total amount of money to be raised by taxes in the draft budget climbs by 2.46 percent to $45,894,838.
The overall proposed budget is $72,017,647. Ocean City enjoys substantial revenue from local sources such as parking fees and beach tag fees, and so the city does not have to raise its full budget from taxpayers.
The biggest category of appropriations is salaries and wages, which increase by 3.19 percent to $29.5 million under the proposed budget.
The proposed municipal tax levy makes up only a portion of a property owner’s tax bill. Final tax bills include school and county taxes.
Details of revenues and expenses will be presented at the public workshop meeting on Thursday.
See full text of Ocean City Mayor Jay Gillian’s 2015 budget address.
