The 2012 municipal budget was introduced on April 4, but has yet to be approved because state aid figures have not come in.
Without state aid, the budget bears a 17-percent tax levy increase. State aid will offset that number.
The budget cannot be approved until the city learns how much financial aid it will receive from the state. According to chief financial officer [CFO] Juan Uribe, those numbers could come in any day now.
“I am expecting to hear the news from the state next week, but that’s just a personal assumption based on timelines from the past and based on experience,” Uribe said.
Municipalities do not receive state aid until after the state budget is passed, he said. Both the state assembly and state senate have completed hearings on the budget, so Uribe expects the city’s state aid numbers to come in soon.
Last year, Asbury Park received $10,375,000 from the state, Uribe said. That was down from $11,750,000 in 2010; $10,550,000 in 2009 and $12 million in 2008.
This year, the state has authorized municipalities to anticipate 75 percent of last year’s aid in their new budgets, Uribe said.
The total proposed budget this year is $40.2 million — down $3 million from last year’s $43.2 million.
That $3 million reduction in spending is due to the assumption that hte city will receive less aid from the state this year, Uribe said. Cutting $3 million in municipal costs is “a challenge,” Uribe said. “In larger municipalities that might not be that minimal, but in a small municipality, that’s a big chunk of money.”
To read a previous story about the budget’s introduction, click here.
