Ocean County budget: Taxes stable, spending up slightly in proposed 2025 budget

March 13, 2025

Asbury Park Press

By Erik Larsen

TOMS RIVER — County taxes will remain the same, but spending will go up slightly under a new $609 million budget to fund Ocean County government operations and various capital projects in 2025, according to a preliminary review on Wednesday.

The current property tax rate of 28.2 cents per $100 of equalized assessed value will remain stable over the next year, with $497.9 million of the budget to be raised by taxation in 2025 — an increase of $42 million, the cost of which is offset by a growing base of taxable real estate in the county valued at $176.5 billion, according to the review presented to the Ocean County Board of Commissioners Wednesday. Even though the county sets a single tax rate, the amount each town pays varies. This is because a state formula distributes the county tax burden based on the total value of all taxable properties in each town.

During an agenda session or “pre-board meeting” of the board, Commissioner Frank Sadeghi, co-liaison to the Finance Department, reiterated his belief that Ocean County’s population will reach one million full-time residents by the mid-21st century. The population was 637,229 in the 2020 Census and was estimated to have increased to 659,197 as of 2023.

“There are roughly 9,000 kids that are born in Lakewood alone, in just one municipality, every year,” Sadeghi said.

The population growth in Lakewood was attributed to the need for the reconstruction and widening of Cross Street, which is expected to cost the county government $11 million in 2025.

Highlights of the proposed 2025 budget also includes:

  • General capital improvements: $94 million;
  • Replacement of Dover Road bridges: $3 million;
  • Route 539 overpass in Plumsted: $12 million;
  • Commonwealth Bridge in Manchester: $3.2 million;
  • Stormwater management: $5.5 million;
  • Renovation of Jackson Center (Phase III), Ocean County Vocational Technical School District: $5.2 million;
  • Expansion of Marine Academy of Technology and Environmental Science, OCVTS, Stafford: $25.2 million;
  • Renovations to Waretown Center, OCVTS: $8.2 million;
  • Radiography and Veterinary Laboratories, Ocean County College, Toms River: $3.2 million;
  • Administration Building, OCC, Toms River: $3 million;
  • Relocation of fuel tank – design and construction, Ocean County Airport, Berkeley: $3.8 million;
  • Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning design for county airport terminal, Berkeley: $240,000;
  • Design for maintenance hangar, county airport, Berkeley: $800,000;
  • Design for two box aircraft hangar, county airport, Berkeley: $460,000.

A formal introduction of the budget is scheduled for 4 p.m. Wednesday at the Ocean County Administration Building at 101 Hooper Ave. in downtown Toms River.

A public hearing and adoption of the budget would take place a month later on April 16 at the same time and place.