Comparison of Toms River School Tax Rate

Toms River residents, as well as the other towns in the regional school district, could face increased school taxes this year.

At $0.7389 per $100, the tax rate is an increase of 3.3 cents per $100 over 2010-2011 for Toms River residents.

Here, you’ll find a comparison of how Toms River Regional stacks up to other regional districts in Ocean County, as well as look back over a decade of school tax rates for Toms River. We also stacked up how Toms River compares to other town’s 2010 school tax rates.

Highest School Tax Rates in Ocean County

According to the 2010 breakdown of the general tax rate of Ocean County towns, which towns have the highest school tax rates?

1. Lakewood: $1.157
2. Jackson: $1.089
3. Plumsted: $1.003
4. Barnegat: $1.001
5. Manchester: $0.942
6. Lacey: $0.926
7. Brick: $0.912
8. Point Pleasant Boro: $0.909
9. Pine Beach (Toms River Regional): $0.738
10. Waretown District: $0.734
11. Beachwood (Toms River Regional): $0.716
12. Toms River (Toms River Regional): $0.706

Regional District Comparison

Toms River Regional is the largest district in Ocean County, but it is not the only regional one.  While other districts may operate as a regional district, none come close to the enrollment and budget of Toms River Regional. The tax rates of Ocean County’s other regional districts are far less than half of Toms River’s.

Compared to Toms River’s increased tax rate, Pinelands Regional proposed the second consecutive year of tax rate decrease. Administrators there consolidated top staffers to trim from the $32.7 million budget. The towns of Bass River, Tuckerton, Little Egg Harbor and Eagleswood feed into the district, and face a decreased tax rate of a penny to 4.7 cents depending on the town. Pinelands Regional is facing state aid issues and increased pension costs, just like Toms River Regional, but is a much smaller district in comparison.

Taxpayers in all but one of the towns that make up the Central Regional district face increased school taxes. For example, Berkeley Township has an increase of .0056 cents per $100 of assessed value. The current tax rate for the Central Regional school district is 0.3697 cents per $100 of assessed value for Berkeley.

Stafford taxpayers had $0.58 for their town’s school district, as well as $0.20 for the regional high school tax for Southern Regional Schools. This year for Stafford, the regional rate is a penny increase. The total budget there is a quarter the size of Toms River Regional’s, at $54 million proposed.

Historic Toms River School Tax Rate

What was the tax rate a decade ago? Toms River taxpayers actually paid more: $1.58  per $100 of assessed valuation in 2001, according to the Ocean County Tax Board.

According to the county, the regional school tax rate for Toms River residents in terms of dollars per $100 of assessed property value:

• 2000: $1.45
• 2001: $1.58
• 2002: $1.48
• 2003: $1.52
• 2004: $1.54
• 2005: $1.55
• 2006: $1.58
• 2007: $ 1.57
• 2008: $ 1.63
• 2009: $ 0.63
• 2010: $0.70
• 2011: $0.73 (proposed)