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Gloucester supervisors weigh options to close budget gap; keep meals and cigarette taxes on the table, remove boat and personal-property hikes for now
Summary
Supervisors reviewed FY26 options including a 2% state retention bonus, proposed tax options (meals, cigarette, personal property, boat, real estate) and capital matches; after discussion they kept the meals tax at 2% for now, left the cigarette tax in the list and agreed to remove the boat tax and proposed personal-property increases from round-one options.
The Gloucester County Board of Supervisors convened a work session on April 16 to continue developing the FY26 budget, focusing on options to close a multi‑million‑dollar gap while responding to reassessments and new state mandates.
Miss Callaway, the county budget presenter, said the board’s line‑item budget is posted on the county website and can be reviewed in full. She walked through a menu of revenue options the board had previously advertised — including increases to the meals tax, a cigarette tax, personal property tax changes, a boat tax and adjustments to the real‑estate rate — and displayed models showing how each penny change would affect revenue and homeowner bills.
The board spent the meeting testing preferences rather than taking final votes. After public feedback and legal checks, members signaled they did not want to pursue a boat tax for this budget cycle and preferred to remove the proposed personal‑property tax increase from the first round of options. Supervisors tentatively agreed to keep a proposed meals tax increase at 2% for now and to retain a conservative cigarette tax model for further consideration.
Board members asked staff for clearer, homeowner‑level examples showing the dollar impact at common assessment levels and for revised revenue runs that reflect removing boat and personal property options. Miss Callaway said staff will also provide scenarios that show the effect of different meals‑tax rates and the implications of earmarking part of that revenue for utilities.
On rates, staff noted the advertised maximum real‑estate rate was substantially higher than the equalized rate; the draft budget scenarios that rely more heavily on real‑estate revenue showed a proposed rate near 0.603 per $100 of assessed value (up from the equalized 0.537 but down from a recently advertised ceiling). Supervisors asked for a short packet of examples — median, below‑median and above‑median homes — to show what those rate choices would mean in dollars and cents for taxpayers.
The work session ended with the board scheduling a follow‑up meeting to review those refined scenarios and to continue weighing budget trade‑offs.
