Brick Council to Consider $5M FEMA Loan

The Brick Township council on Tuesday will consider a resolution which would move forward the process to obtain a $5 million loan from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The Community Disaster Loan program, which the federal agency offers to government entities following certain natural disasters, is designed to make up for lost tax revenue due to a reduction in the overall tax base.

Gov. Chris Christie, earlier this year, signed an executive order encouraging towns that lost more than 5 percent of their tax bases to take the loans in order to avoid property tax hikes.

In Brick, the tax base was reduced by $364,988,600, or 3.44 percent, figures from the Ocean County Board of Taxation show.

There was no word on what tax rates would be in Brick for the remainder of 2013, as there has been no budget introduced to the council. Like many other towns affected by the storm, Brick was advised to hammer out its potential Community Disaster Loan before introducing a budget.

Business Administrator Scott Pezarras has said that in previous disasters, the loans have often been forgiven.

The council is set to meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the municipal complex on Chambers Bridge Road.