County budget carries 3.47 percent tax increase

VERNON — The Sussex County Board of Chosen Freeholders will introduce a $110.7 million budget on Wednesday night at the Vernon Township Municipal Building.
The budget calls for an overall tax increase of 3.47 percent over last year.
Officials said the county’s various departments will continue to do more with less and held budgets mostly flat.
The largest impact, officials said was the overall cost of health care and prescription benefits. In their annual evaluation of pricing, officials anticipated an increase to healthcare premiums of 12.45 percent, or $2.1 million dollars. The county has since taken steps to mitigate this increase by electing to return to the State Health Benefits Plan in July of this year. Switching providers will bring that increase down to 6.1 percent.
Another change in the budget comes from the reevaluation of the services managed by the County Health Department. In an effort to better serve all the municipalities and be more transparent, officials have segregated the cost of services not mandated by Title 26. These services are provided by the County Health Department to the municipalities, and the costs of these services will be shifted to the General Purpose tax. There are other services that the local boards of health can obtain from providers other than the county. For municipalities that receive these services from the county, the associated costs will continue to be funded through the Health Tax.