Lakewood Township’s 2025 Annual Debt Statement reports $192,432,400 in total gross debt and $172,053,215.82 in net debt after deductions, according to the statement certified by Chief Financial Officer John E. Barrett.
According to the statement, Lakewood lists deductions of $20,379,184.18. It also lists an equalized valuation basis of $19,933,449,757.67, based on the average of Lakewood’s 2023, 2024 and 2025 equalized property valuations.
Against that valuation basis, the statement reports net debt equal to 0.863%.
What the debt statement measures
An annual debt statement is not a budget by itself. Under New Jersey’s Local Bond Law materials, the statement is supposed to set out gross debt, deductions, net debt, the last three years of equalized property valuations and the net-debt percentage against that valuation base.
In plain language, gross debt is the larger total before permitted deductions. Net debt is the amount left after those deductions are applied for debt-limit reporting.
According to the Lakewood statement, the local school purposes line shows $19,650,000 in gross debt and the same amount as a deduction. The statement’s municipal/county general obligations line accounts for $172,782,400 in gross debt, $729,184.18 in deductions and $172,053,215.82 in net debt.
What it does not say
The debt statement does not, by itself, explain the township’s next borrowing plan, future capital projects or the tax impact of debt service. Those questions require other records, such as the adopted budget, capital plan, bond ordinances, meeting minutes or CFO memoranda.
What the record shows clearly is the 2025 debt snapshot: $192.4 million in gross debt, $172.1 million in net debt and a 0.863% net-debt ratio.