Finance Director Frank Donato made a presentation to City Council on March 27 outlining details of anticipated revenues and expenses in the 2025 municipal budget. The presentation is available here.

City Council is expected to "introduce" the budget on April 10 and make potential revisions before a final vote on adoption on May 8.

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Mayor Jay A. Gillian delivered his annual State of the City address to City Council on March 13, 2025. The outline of his text is included below. Video of the full address is here.

The administration also delivered to City Council a copy of the recommended 2025 "mayor's budget." This is the first step in a public municipal budgeting process that will include a presentation to City Council by Finance Director Frank Donato on the details of the proposed budget on March 27. City Council will vote to "introduce" the budget on April 10, and then work to make any potential revisions before a final public hearing and vote to adopt the budget tentatively on May 8. A copy of the draft mayor's budget is here.

State of the City
Mayor Jay A. Gillian
March 13, 2025

Good evening, Council, city team members, and my fellow Ocean City residents and taxpayers. It’s an honor to be here tonight and to deliver this annual State of the City address for the 15th time. 

We’re all blessed to live in this beautiful town. Compared to other places, our problems are small and our future is bright.

That’s not to say we don’t have our challenges.

The city team works to maintain infrastructure, expand services, protect public safety and preserve the quality of life that makes Ocean City such a great place. We always look to cut costs and make operations more efficient.  

Working together with City Council, we’ve come a long way in making life even better for our residents and taxpayers. 

It’s a dream for people to live in Ocean City. One reason they can move here is because of our relatively low taxes. 

Tax dollars go a long way in Ocean City. This is what you get:

• A great new senior center program
• Programs for our veterans
• First-class facilities for our children
• A home for Special Olympics
• A community center with a library, pool, fitness center, arts center, historical museum and senior center all under one roof.
• Charging stations for electric vehicles
• A jitney service to help us get around
• A new trash dropoff service
• Our own Pops orchestra
• A Summer Concert Series
• The list goes on

Tax dollars also pay for improvements to every part of the city.

• Some people may not remember what it was like before our flood mitigation projects 
• We succeeded in adding the south end to our beach replenishment program
• We are rebuilding the Boardwalk
• We restarted bay dredging
• We are investing in the downtown 
• We are constructing new buildings and taking care of all facilities
• We are protecting open space
• We are paving roads and alleys
• We have plans for a new airport terminal and restaurant

Ocean City has way more to offer than other towns. Our homes are one of the most important investments we make. Everything we do enhances that investment. 

The average sales price of a residential unit in 2010 was $580,000. By 2024, it more than doubled to $1.3 million.  

I want to work with City Council to maintain infrastructure and services, but we face the same challenges that every other American does. Costs rise year after year, but we still need to pay the bills.

We’re fortunate to have top-notch full-time police and fire departments. Our response times are quick, and Ocean City will always be known as a clean and safe town.

We have one of only two fire departments in New Jersey with an ISO Class 1 rating. Our Police Department has been a statewide leader in finding ways to control gatherings of teens in public. Our Public Works Department does amazing work maintaining the beach, boardwalk, buildings and more than 100 miles of roads. Our Community Services Department provides recreation activities, events and social service programs for people of all ages.

But supporting these men and women comes at a cost. 

Contracts for city employees, along with health benefits and pension costs, make up most of our annual budget. These costs rise each year.

Finance Director Frank Donato will make a detailed presentation on this proposed budget at the next Council meeting on March 27, and the budget will be yours once you introduce it on April 10. A final vote would be on May 8. These grants are federal and state tax dollars that are being returned to Ocean City taxpayers. 

The city team has been hard at work negotiating the best deals on employee benefits, cutting the capital budget, and trimming the operating budget. We continue to seek grant funding to offset costs. Not including more than $100 million in beach replenishment funding, we have secured more than $56 million in grants since I took office.   

The draft budget you’ll receive tonight is our recommendation.

The average city tax bill would increase by $242 under the budget, about $20 a month, or 62 cents a day.

Despite all the increases in health benefits, labor contracts and other costs, the tax rate increase will be the same as last year: 3.7 cents.

I want to ask Council to join me in looking for new revenue solutions and other efficiencies, if we want to further reduce the burden on taxpayers.

Ocean City must maintain a staff to meet the needs of the 150,000 people who populate Ocean City in the summer and the growing off-season population, but this burden is borne by our 20,000 taxpayers. Tools such as an occupancy fee on some vacation rentals is one way to spread these costs more fairly. 

Ocean City taxpayers also foot the bill for some services that benefit a limited number of users. Reasonable increases to user fees to cover the costs of services is one way to make the tax burden more fair.

We have an exceptional finance team, and we have always remained responsible to taxpayers. Year after year, independent experts like Standard & Poors confirm this a near-perfect AA bond rating.

Even with an increase in this year’s budget, our tax rate remains low.

I look forward to working with Council, the city team, our businesses and all of our citizens to keep looking forward in Ocean City.