Council reduces budget despite rising costs

‘Hardest budget of the last ten years’

Originally Published in the Ocean Star Newspaper on May 22, 2026

POINT PLEASANT — The Point Pleasant mayor and borough council adopted a budget of $26M on Monday, May 18, with a $330,000 overall decrease from last year.

The total budget of $26,168,743 is $330,656 lower than last year’s total operating budget of $26,499,400, a 1.24% decrease.

Councilwoman Charlene Archer, chair of the finance committee, explained the largest factors contributing to the budget, and explained how the council was able to adopt a smaller budget.

“This has been easily the hardest budget of the last ten years,” Archer began. “We’ve been working on this since the end of December, and we are adopting tonight on time. I am proud to be able to say that, despite certain built-in cost drivers going up that were out of our control, we have managed to actually cut spending. Our overall budget is less than last year’s, which is truly a monumental feat.”

Of the total budget, $18,060,458 is to be raised by taxes, a $712,606 increase from last year’s total of $17,347,852.

Archer commented on the slight increase in taxes on the average assessed home, valued at $402,917, saying, “In a state where the average municipal tax increase is five percent— this year some towns landed north of 10 percent— we managed to have only a modest 3.54% increase, which equates to $81 for the entire year on an average assessed home.”

Archer said the major factors influencing the budget were rising healthcare costs, increased pension contributions for employees and the cost of handling the major snowstorms that battered the coast between December of 2025 and February of 2026.

“Many things are driving this year’s budget, which are also driving just about every town in this state; rising health care costs, because of the state’s mismanagement of state health benefits, increased pension contributions for employees raised on us by the state, and two snowstorms, one of which was the biggest we’ve had in a decade, that fell on a Saturday night into a Monday morning, causing soaring overtime costs for plowing,” Archer said.

“I’d also be remiss if I didn't mention the state-mandated, affordable housing cost to get through our fourth round. All of our increases were directly driven and dictated by the state of New Jersey. While our overall budget is actually less than last year’s because we cut spending where we can, these built-in cost drivers that I have just mentioned are what's moving the needle here,” she said.