WEST LONG BRANCH — Monmouth Beach catches a break next year in the Shore Regional High School budget.

The borough’s tax rate to support its share of the $10,143,032 levy will go down. The tax rates of the other three sending districts — Sea Bright, Oceanport and West Long Branch — are going up, however.

One Sea Bright councilman complained bitterly about the burden that his borough will carry in support of the school next year.

The total proposed budget for Shore Regional High School was $11,144,622, an increase of $351,083 over the $10,793,539 budget for the current year.

The $10,143,032 tax levy for 2003-2004 is up $676,467 over the tax levy of $9,466,564 for the current year. The tax levy in 2001-2002 was $8,996,980.

A public hearing on the budget, which was to precede its adoption by the Shore Regional High School Board of Education, was held Tuesday night.

Monmouth Beach is being asked to contribute $2,314,625.77 to support the budget, a decline of $35,257.76 from the $2,349,883.53 it contributed last year. The amount Monmouth Beach will pay represents a 22.819 percent share of the total tax burden, compared to the 24.823 percent share it paid a year ago — a drop of over 2 percent.

The tax rate for Monmouth Beach for the 2003-2004 school year will be 63.1 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, down 1.6 cents from 64.7 cents in 2002-2003. That represents a reduction of $31.15 in taxes for a house assessed at $200,000, and $46.72 for a house assessed at $300,000.

In Oceanport, the tax rate will go up slightly, but the percentage of the tax levy that it carries will be reduced.

Oceanport will contribute $2,792,608.17 toward the high school’s 2003-2004 budget, an increase of $81,549.04 over the $2,711,059.13 it is paying for the current year. The amount it’s paying represents a 27.532 share of the district’s tax burden, down 1.1 percent from 28.638 percent this year.

Oceanport’s tax rate will go up, however, by 1.1 cents from 55.9 cents per $100 of assessed valuation this year to 57 cents for 2003-2004. The increase in the tax rate will mean an increase of $20.92 in taxes for a house assessed at $200,000, and $31.38 for a house assessed at $300,000.

West Long Branch is being asked to contribute $3,656,385 toward the high school’s tax levy, an increase of $345,578 from the $3,310,807 it kicked in last year. Its share of the tax burden for the 2003-2004 school year will be 36.048 percent, up from 34.974 percent in the current year, an increase of 1.07 percent.

The tax rate for West Long Branch will increase 4.9 cents from 49.1 cents this year to 54 cents next year. That means taxes will increase $98.27 on a house assessed at $200,000 and $147.41 on a house assessed at $300,000.

The biggest hit occurs in Sea Bright where the school tax levy will increase $284,597, from $1,094,815.07 this year to $1,379,412.37 in 2002-2003. This is an increase of 2.03 percent, from 11.565 percent in the current year to 13.599 percent in the new school year. That translates to a 13.8-cent increase in the tax rate, from 55.5 cents per $100 of assessed valuation to 69.3 cents.

Taxes will increase $276.76 on a house assessed at $200,000, and $415.14 on a house assessed at $300,000.

Sea Bright Councilman William Gelfound complained at the March 18 Borough Council meeting that the share of taxes being assessed against Sea Bright was unfair. He said that students from Sea Bright make up only 4.8 percent of Shore Regional’s student body, yet the borough’s taxpayers shoulder 13.8 percent of the budget.

"We’re paying $44,485 per cent," he said. "That’s a huge amount of money."

Gelfound said Shore Regional School Superintendent Leonard G. Schnappauf felt so bad about the impact on Sea Bright that he offered to go to Trenton with Gelfound when the councilman takes up his complaint about how regional school taxes are assessed.

"I plan to go to Trenton in the next few months," Gelfound said.