Camden County voted for a tax hike to protect water, reduce flooding, and update its sewer systems
The one-cent boost to the county's open space tax will cost the average Camden County resident $1.83 per month.
Camden County voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly supported a one-cent increase to an annual tax protecting the county’s natural areas.
The tax will help fuel a $400 million plan unveiled in July to improve water quality in the Cooper River, a tributary of the Delaware River that runs through Camden County, and other local rivers, lakes, and streams.
In the county’s final unofficial returns as of Wednesday, 79% of Camden County voters who responded to the ballot question, or nearly 92,000 people, had voted “yes” to boosting the county’s Open Space Trust Fund.
The tax increase will cost the average Camden County homeowner $1.83 per month. The vote increases the existing open space tax to $.03 per $100 of assessed property value, still one cent lower than in Burlington and Gloucester Counties.
The county will start collecting that money in 2027, said Dan Keashen, the county’s public affairs director.
“Now that the referendum has passed we can get to work improving and enhancing our community,” Keashen wrote in a text.
The ballot question also puts dollars toward protections for the county’s drinking water sources, wetlands, parks, water recreation, and prevention of development in natural areas.
Don Baugh, president of nonprofit Upstream Alliance, said the new tax will reduce how often his group has to cancel its free paddling and other educational trips through Camden’s waterways. It will also, he said, improve the ecosystem for aquatic life.
“It will boost the quality of life and economic development of Camden County, where more people will say, ‘I love to live here,’” Baugh wrote in an email.
County officials are still discussing which projects the levy will fund first, but Keashen said the increase will immediately support fixes for outdated sewer pipes leaking into the county’s waterways and improvements to Camden City’s combined sewer system.
Those efforts would help reduce flooding in the city and eliminate liquid waste flowing into the Cooper and Delaware Rivers, Keashen said.
“This referendum reflects a shared commitment to environmental stewardship, and preserving our natural resources for years to come,” wrote Jeffrey Nash, a Camden County commissioner, in a statement.
In addition to the one-cent tax hike, the county plans to shore up those projects with state and federal funding, philanthropy, and other funding sources.
Voters approved Camden County’s first open space tax 28 years ago with a referendum establishing a $2 million trust fund for environmental protections. Today, all 21 counties in New Jersey have an open space tax. Camden County raised more than $12 million through the tax last year.
On Election Day, some voters at the polls supported the new levy, but others were concerned about the extra cost.
Nicole Fahnestock, 52, has lived in Cherry Hill for nearly two decades. Her main concern at the ballot box was the cost of living.
“I voted ‘no’ because, honestly, I’m just tired of all the taxes,” Fahnestock said, noting that she has recently been impacted by property tax increases.
But other Camden County voters, like Shawn Acosta, said they were willing to pay a little more to help the planet.
“I’m a kayaker, so I’ve noticed our waterways are getting cloudier and cloudier,” said Acosta, a 61-year-old Etsy shop owner and longtime Cherry Hill resident. “I grew up fishing and we ate the fish. I take my grandson fishing and can’t eat the fish. That’s a problem to me.”
Rudolph Williams, director of climate and culture at the Philadelphia School District, also supported the measure.
“Anything that’s going to increase the [water] purity needs to happen,” Williams said. “Can you really put a value on purification of the things that we need?”
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