CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE -
The Cape May County Board of Chosen Freeholders introduced the County's 2013 budget at its meeting Tuesday night.
The new budget calls for a tax rate increase of slightly over 1 cent. According to county officials, the average tax payer will pay around $204 for $100,000 of property assessment.
County Freeholders say they began working on the budget in October, and were $5.4 million over their cap, but have worked to bring that number down to slightly under their cap... All while maintaining the lowest tax rate for any county in the state.
"We worked very hard to maintain that, we started close to 4 years now, we saw the reductions in ratables, so we started taking action 3 and a half to 4 years ago," said Freeholder Director Gerald Thornton.
Thornton added that the county has seen an $8 billion decline in their ratable base, or taxable assets, over the last four years. The county has cut government jobs and services to help account for the loss of income during that time.
