Arnone touts countywide shared services, grants and fiscal choices as model for growth
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Summary
Tom Arnone said Monmouth County has shared-service agreements with all 53 municipalities, secured over $40 million in 2025 grant funding, and defended the county’s self-insured health benefits and long-term budgeting approach while outlining infrastructure investments.
At the State of the County address, Commissioner Director Tom Arnone framed Monmouth County’s approach to growth around a business-minded shared-services model, grant-seeking, and long-term fiscal choices.
Arnone said the county is the only one in New Jersey with at least one shared-service agreement with every one of its 53 municipalities and that many towns now participate in multiple agreements. He introduced Rob Ferregino as the county’s new shared services coordinator and said Ferregino is meeting with towns to expand programs including MedStar, engineering assistance, fire academy services, public works, and municipal assistance.
The county reported securing more than $40,000,000 in grant funding in 2025 for transportation, public safety, health and social services and cited state and federal sources including the Transportation Trust Fund and regional partners such as the NJTPA. Arnone described the county’s budget process as continuous and emphasized fiscal decisions taken in previous years—most prominently the choice to remain self-insured for employee health benefits. He said county employees have seen smaller premium increases (he cited a 6–8% average) compared with state-plan increases he characterized as 33–35%.
Arnone said the county manages a roughly $520,000,000 budget and about 3,000 employees, and described choices such as facility consolidations (including care-center closures) that he said saved about $8,000,000 annually. He reiterated the policy goal of finding non-property-tax revenue streams where possible, including EMS reimbursements and other program rebates.
On economic development, Arnone highlighted film-readiness efforts with municipalities and Brookdale Community College—stating that projects with firms such as Netflix are using local union labor and contractors—and announced initiatives to promote local businesses under the “Made in Monmouth” and similar campaigns.
Arnone’s remarks described policy direction and fiscal strategy rather than new formal motions; no votes or ordinance adoptions were conducted during the address.