By TERRY REIDY
Asbury Park City Manager

It's 10 a.m. March 25, 2004 - do you know where your municipal budget is?

Last Wednesday I submitted the municipal budget to the Mayor and Council for introduction. While this budget represents months of work on the part of all of the Department Heads and our Finance Director, it marks the very beginning of the public process.

We started this budget process in the Fall of 2003 with a $4 million deficit. These numbers are staggering, and yet, they represent the real challenge our community faces. In its introduced version, the 2004 municipal budget calls for a 47-point increase in the municipal tax rate addressing a $2 million deficit. While this is clearly not acceptable and will not be reflected in the adopted budget, it has already been cut in half from the very legitimate requests originally submitted by our department heads.

In 2003, Asbury Park received $500,000 in extraordinary aid for the first time. As a consequence, the state required that a team of management experts visit our city and conduct a variety of departmental audits including Police, Fire, Finance, the Construction Office and Public Works. I am grateful that we had this level of expertise dedicated to our city. Their preliminary reports call for increases, not cuts in our staffing levels and municipal budget. To fully implement their suggestions, we would have to dramatically increase our budget. The State knows and we know that this is not realistic this year. Nonetheless, that is what is needed, so I am proposing that we take the first steps needed to address the State's recommendations.

This is still a bare bones budget. It does not reflect much of what the city still needs to do to provide the proper level of services to our city. The challenge in Asbury Park is not addressing the appropriations side of the budget (what it costs to deliver services), it is addressing the funding side. This budget reflects a 10.9% decrease in appropriations from the 2003 adopted budget as amended. Yes, we have already cut the cost of municipal services from last year by almost 11% and we are still $2 million in the hole.

Despite the reduction in appropriations, this budget contains funding for additional police and firefighters; a reorganization of the supervisory personnel in the Department of Public Works; bringing the engineering function in house and expanding the construction official's office (both of which are designed to be self-liquidating) as well as other organizational improvements. It also supports the Mayor and Council's commitment to capital improvements, affordable housing, economic development, and expanded recreation and social services as part of a new community center as articulated in their 2004 goals and objectives.

Through sound and assertive management of our costs, this budget reflects a $530,000 reduction in our health insurance premiums and no increase in our liability premiums despite dramatic improvements to our coverage.

The tax collection rate in our city has gone from 80% in 2001 to 94% in 2003. This is an amazing achievement -- unheard of in such a short period of time.

The assessed value of the city has increased by $4.8 million in the last year and for the first time in many years the city will not have to borrow to meet its cash flow needs. This represents an annual savings of $100,000 and more importantly sends a strong message to the bond market that Asbury Park has its financial house in order.

The Mayor and Council are applying for $750,000 in extraordinary aid and anticipating other revenues to help balance this budget. We are also exploring additional methods to increase the tax collection rate in 2004 and beyond. Dramatic steps are necessary to increase our revenue stream.

I present this budget to the governing body and the citizens of Asbury Park as a work in progress. I invite you all to attend our budget sessions and provide feedback. Your first opportunity to discuss the introduced budget will be on Wednesday April 21, 2004 at the regular Council meeting. To borrow from a well known clothing store ad campaign, "An educated resident is our best customer."