Brick's Municipal Budget Presentation Two Weeks Away

Brick Township residents will have to wait two more weeks to find out the proposed tax rates for the remainder of 2013 and early 2014.

Mayor Stephen C. Acropolis will present the township council with his budget for the year at the governing body's June 26 meeting, Assistant Business Administrator Juan Bellu said Tuesday.

The council, which controls the township's purse strings, will then be able to make changes to the budget or accept it.

The municipal budget process, normally completed long before June arrives, was held up this year due to ongoing issues related to Superstorm Sandy. The township and county had to calculate Brick's loss of tax base due to the storm, then the state advised Brick to take out a Community Disaster Loan from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, delaying the process even more.

On Tuesday, the township council voted in favor of taking the $5 million loan, which will likely be used to cushion the blow of the loss of tax base in the upcoming budget.

"The DCA [state Department of Community Affairs] is making a request that it all be used, especially in Brick given the scale of the anticipated loss," said Jean Cipriani, township attorney.

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

"We've been impacted greater than $5 million," said Bellu. "That is reason for this loan program; they want us to minimize the impact to Brick residents."

Often in past natural disasters, officials have said, the loans have been forgiven.

Brick has been operating its municipal government thus far in 2013 using a series of temporary appropriations that, generally, extend the previous year's budget.