Such A Deal
Loch Arbour and Allenhurst Eyeing A Merger
The Asbury Park Sun reports that the Village of Loch Arbour is moving forward with its plan to seek a merger with its neighbor to the north, the Borough of Allenhurst.
Loch Arbour is .1 square mile and home to 196 people, according to the 2010 U.S. census. The metropolis of Allenhurst in three times the size of of Loch Arbour by land mass, but has a much lower population density of 496 residents per the most recent census. Should the towns merge, they would form a municipality just south of Deal, the 1.3 square mile borough that is home to 750 year round residents.
Loch Arbour has a municipal budget of $1,243,058. That’s $6,342 per capita or $25,368 per family of four. Allenhurst’s municipal budget in $4,344,268; $8,760 per capita.
Obviously, it is not municipal spending that is prompting the 196 Loch Arbourians to give up their sovereignty. It is school spending.
Loch Arbour sends its 20 school age children to the Ocean Township Schools. The Corzine administration invalidated a school funding agreement between Loch Arbour and Ocean Township that was worth about $300,000 per year. The new formula required Loch Arbour to pay school taxes based upon their property values. That $300K became $1.6 million. Allenhurst sends it school kids to the Asbury Park school system, an Abbott District that the entire state subsidizes. If the merger goes through, property taxes in Loch Arbour will fall from an average of about $24,000 per home to less than $9000. Not bad, relative to property taxes throughout the rest of the state, for homes valued at over $1.4 million on average.
Posted: April 22nd, 2012 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: Property Taxes | Tags: Allenhurst, Asbury Park Sun, Corzine, Deal, Loch Arbour | 10 Comments »