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Gloucester County adopts FY26 budget, sets tax levy with split on real estate and personal property
Summary
The Gloucester County Board of Supervisors approved the fiscal year 2026 budget and an ordinance setting 2025 tax levies, including a 0.614¢ real estate rate and a $3.10 personal property rate split that reduces projected one-time windfall revenue.
The Gloucester County Board of Supervisors voted to approve the fiscal year 2026 budget and an ordinance setting the 2025 tax levies Tuesday evening, adopting a real estate rate of $0.614 per $100 of assessed value and a $3.10 rate for tangible personal property.
The action follows weeks of hearings and public comment about county spending priorities and utilities funding. The tax ordinance the board adopted also includes special-service district levies for several sanitary and mosquito-control districts.
Finance staff explained the board’s decision to split planned rate increases between real estate and personal property reduces the near-term “windfall” the county projected when increases were assumed to come entirely from real property. Finance staff said that because personal property collections come in more slowly—about a 62% collection rate in the first months—the board’s revised mix lowers the immediate extra revenue from roughly $1,055,000 to about $976,282.
Board members debated how to use any excess revenue. Several supervisors proposed reserving enough to restore the county’s unassigned fund balance toward a 16% target and dedicating remaining excess to utility capital needs. No formal amendment reallocating excess revenue was passed as part of the budget adoption; the board directed staff to return with more detailed options for using any additional revenue.
Public commenters urged greater attention to budget discipline and questioned county purchase-card spending; board members and staff responded that a review of P-card use and recent process tightenings have addressed previous concerns.
The board approved the budget, the tax ordinance, and related appropriation and rate resolutions in separate roll-call votes; one supervisor voted "no" on the main budget motion during the recorded roll call.
The board scheduled follow-up presentations on options for applying any excess revenue to utility capital needs and on the precise dollar impact to the unassigned fund balance.
