Presented: January 13, 2004
Dennis Levinson, County Executive

In Atlantic County it has become a tradition that the County Executive use the presentation of his annual budget as a time to advise our citizens on the state of their county government. It is also a time to review the accomplishments of the previous year and to outline our goals and objectives for the year ahead.

Our broad goals for 2004 are straight forward and simple:

• Ensure the health, safety and security of those who live, work and visit here.
• Deliver County Services as efficiently and cost effectively as possible
• Continue to improve our roads, bridges and transportation infrastructure
• Acquire and preserve open space.

By meeting these goals, we will help to ensure a better quality of life for our residents and visitors.

I am pleased to report that the state of Atlantic County is very good. Our local economy remains strong and our region continues to grow. However, as does the rest of the nation, we must now confront the challenges of a changing and more volatile world, with greater demands for security and public safety. You may feel assured that your county government is fully capable of responding to these challenges.

Atlantic County government remains in solid financial shape. For the fourth year in a row, we have received a clean audit with no findings. Our bond ratings put us in the top 25% of all counties in the country.

The total Atlantic County budget for 2004 is $148,306,865.85. Our year end surplus is a healthy $17,675,597, of which $9,200,000, 52%, has been appropriated into the current year's budget.

We conservatively project the county tax rate for 2004 to be 37.5 cents - a decrease of between two to two and a half cents. It should be noted that the rate to which I refer is the Equalized County Tax Rate, the standard measure used by all counties in New Jersey. The actual county tax rate will vary in each municipality based on the ratio of real to assessed valuation. For the purpose of illustration, this means a $100,000 home assessed at full valuation will see a decrease of $20 to $25 dollars.

In developing this budget, we sought to meet our obligations head on. I believe we did this well. Although we have undertaken several new major initiatives, we did not issue any new debt in 2003. Instead, we continued our policy of self funding capital improvements when feasible. In 2003 we appropriated an additional $1 million for the self funded $6.5 million county wide 800 MHz system and our self funded $10 million road improvement program. In 2004 we will continue this policy to "pay as we go" and will self fund another $1.2 million on these two objectives.

In addition, we will self fund $1.3 million in major equipment purchases and facility improvements. We are not encumbering future generations with debt. In 2003, we paid down $8.7 million of county debt. In 2004, we will reduce our debt by another $8.8 million. Our debt management is one of the key reasons for our excellent bond rating. We are addressing the needs of our citizens without mortgaging future generations.

In preparing our 2004 Budget, we had to address nearly $9 million in necessary spending increases. These increases include:

• A 12% rise in utility costs. A $370,000 increase.
• A 10% rise in employee health benefits costs. Last year we moved to a different health benefits provider to furnish all our employees with full family coverage. If we had remained with our former plan, this increase would have been closer to 20%. Health benefits will cost $14.8 million in 2004.
• Other Insurance costs such as Workers Compensation and General Liability are up 22%, another $700,000.
• The first full year of operational costs of the new criminal court complex will be approximately $930,000.
• Debt service on the new court complex is approximately $3 million.
• The costs of providing constitutionally mandated health care services to inmates at the jail is expected to increase by $800,000 to a staggering $3.6 million a year.
• $148,000 for eight new, public safety related positions required to enhance our mosquito control efforts due to West Nile Virus, enable the Sheriff to meet new state mandated DNA identification requirements, and fully staff a county Hazardous Materials Response Team.
• $2.8 million in collective bargaining increases to county employees.

All of these increases have been incorporated into this year's budget.

The year just ended has been one of significant accomplishments. Let me highlight a few of these.

• We substantially completed work on the new Criminal Court Complex in Mays Landing. I am pleased to report that this $40 million project has come in under budget. The Prosecutor began occupying his wing last August. We anticipate the Courts and Sheriff will move in early this year.
• In 2003, our Bio Terrorism Task Force completed a BioTerrorism & Public Health Emergency Plan. We are now in a much better position to respond to a mass casualty emergency than we once were. We have also expanded training opportunities for emergency personnel in areas of weapons of mass destruction, mass casualties and critical incident management.
• We have completed development of an 800 MHz Countywide Emergency Communications infrastructure to enable police, fire and emergency workers to communicate from anywhere in Atlantic County. All county government agencies, along with nine Atlantic County municipalities, are already participating in this system. Several other towns and agencies are expected to come on board in the coming year.
• We completed all major work on the Tilton Road Drainage Project. This $2.5 million project was one of my top priorities as County Executive. Resolving the drainage problem on Tilton Road was critical because this road is one of the most heavily traveled in Atlantic County. It is also an emergency evacuation route.
• We completed or awarded contracts for more than $9 million in major infrastructure improvements to our roadways, bridges and intersections.
• We continued our efforts to protect the health of our citizens. We stepped up our mosquito control efforts and our Division of Public Health collected and tested a record number of nearly 300 crows to track the occurrence of West Nile Virus. We also immunized more than 5,000 county residents against the flu in 2003. Despite the nationwide shortage of vaccine, we were able to assure that all elderly or at risk adults with chronic illness who requested inoculation, received a flu shot.
• We completed the Atlantic County Bikeway East and opened it to the public.
• We worked with 80 committed and knowledgeable citizens to complete our Atlantic County 2010 Report. This comprehensive, long term community planning effort identified and prioritized 59 major recommendations for consideration and implementation by county government in the coming years.
• Our Workforce Investment Board provided employment assistance and training to more than 2,500 citizens, opened four new regional literacy labs and obtained a $480,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to work with ACCC and our local hospitals to address the critical shortage of nurses in our area.
• We designated the Atlantic County Utilities Authority as the lead agency responsible for monitoring groundwater issues in Atlantic County and established a local Advisory Board on Groundwater issues. Atlantic County will now be more proactive in addressing local groundwater issues such as aquifer protection, water allocation, water conservation, and wastewater recycling.

We look forward to the year ahead and have established an equally ambitious agenda. A full listing of our objectives for this year is included in your copy of the 2004 Atlantic County Budget. However, I would like to highlight a few.

• We will acquire a new, state of the art, mobile incident command center to assist our municipal governments during times of major crisis to ensure that those who live, work and visit Atlantic County are as safe and secure as possible.
• Our Office of Emergency Preparedness will further expand training opportunities for emergency personnel in the areas of weapons of mass destruction and bioterrorism. We will also continue to work with local law enforcement agencies and school districts on the development of school crisis plans and exercises.
• We will plan for the reuse of the Historic Criminal Courthouse Complex on Main Street in Mays Landing. This project will offer an opportunity for adaptive reuse of facilities, disposing of excess facilities and consolidating certain county operations in the county seat and preserving a priceless part of Atlantic County history.
• We will begin implementing the recommendations of our Atlantic County 2010 Committee. As I mentioned earlier, this citizen planning committee submitted 59 substantive recommendations for county sponsored initiatives to meet emerging community needs.
• We will remain aggressive in acquiring and preserving open space. Our goal for the coming year again is to acquire 500 acres. Our Office of Land Acquisition is currently evaluating several promising sites for acquisition. We also intend to step up our Farmlands Preservation efforts by acquiring the development easements for 2,000 acres of farmlands.
• We will invest nearly $10 million in transportation infrastructure improvements to ensure the safety and efficiency of our county roadways, bridges and intersections. This will include the key intersections of Mill and Spruce and English Creek and Delilah Roads.
• We have begun plans for an annual Atlantic County "Day at the Bay Festival" to be held in Somers Point starting this June.
• We will begin to explore locations to enable expansion of our Veterans Cemetery. Approximately 1968 men and women are currently buried at our facility. We expect to reach capacity in eight to ten years.

During my first term as County Executive, I have worked hard to help the public develop a better understanding and appreciation of what their county government does. Simple facts often say it all.

• Our county switchboard processes nearly 8,000 incoming calls everyday.
  More than 400,000 individuals, residents or visitors, avail themselves of our county park facilities annually.
• Our county jail processes nearly 730 inmate commitments and discharges monthly, a total of over 9,000 annually.
• We deliver over 350 meals to homebound elderly people daily. This is in addition to the 500 meals served daily at our nine nutrition sites.
• Our Division of Intergenerational Services helps maintain more than 900 senior citizens in their homes who would otherwise be placed in nursing homes.
• Our County Library system loans out over 750,000 books and other informational items annually.
• Our Public Works Department is responsible for 370 miles of roads and 254 culverts and bridges, of which 60 are major.
• Our Division of Family and Community Development helped more than 900 individuals make the transfer from public assistance to full time, meaningful employment this year alone.

I could go on. My point is that Atlantic County Government is an important and critical level of government that delivers essential public services and enhances the quality of life of our residents.

As County Executive, it is my responsibility to ensure that this organization continues to build upon our strengths and to operate with the best interests of our citizens at heart. It is a responsibility that I take very seriously.

We have many good things to accomplish in the coming year. What successes we achieve will be due to the cooperation and support we receive from this Board of Freeholders as well as the commitment and dedication of County Staff. Together we are an unbeatable team. I look forward to working with all of you in bringing this year's goals and objectives to fruition.

Thank you.