With approved Bethany budget, storm relief fund started
With the Bethany Beach Town Council's approval of a fiscal year 2017 budget, the town now has a reserve to repair its infrastructure, should natural disaster strike the resort.
Talks of implementing the fund, known as the Storm Emergency Relief Fund, came as early as November 2014, when town manager Cliff Graviet initially proposed it to the town council.
The money would be used to repair or replace town infrastructure, such as the boardwalk, should it be damaged from a hurricane, nor'easter or other weather event.
The fund would not apply to the dunes that vicious storms damaged over the course of the offseason, as the state maintains them, according to Mayor Jack Gordon.
Gordon said U.S. Sen. Tom Carper (D-Delaware) is trying to get federal funding designated for Superstorm Sandy that has not been spent in New Jersey to be redirected to coastal Delaware for beach replenishment.
"The only reason our infrastructure didn't get damaged is because we had the dune," he said.
The town started the fund with money that came from the building permit fees and transfer taxes of the Bethany Ocean Suites Hotel project, which provides $491,000 for FY 2017 and will increase to $644,000 in FY 2018.
The budget includes two tax increases that will bring in about $200,000 annually for the fund.
A 6 percent increase in property tax, effective May 2016, will generate about $100,000 in revenue for the fund. The town estimates the impact will be less than $20 annually for 61 percent of property owners.
The other remaining estimated $100,000 will be generated via an increase in the rental tax rate from 6 to 7 percent for residential and commercial rentals for reservations made after Sept. 1 and from 3 to 3.25 percent for rentals subject to the state's accommodations tax
The budget, approved Friday, March 18, is expected to bring the town $9 million in revenue while spending $7.4 million in operating costs and $1.5 million in capital projects.
The fiscal year in Bethany Beach starts April 1.
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