It will read like fine print at the bottom of your November ballot. It is anything but. On Nov. 3, Camden County voters decide whether to raise the county open-space tax by a single penny — from two cents to three — and in doing so, whether to put up the local share of a $400 million effort to fix the pipes under our towns and clean up the water they spill into. The penny alone would not cover that bill: county officials have told The Philadelphia Inquirer it would raise about $7 million a year, with the rest expected to come from state and federal grants and low-interest New Jersey Water Bank loans.

The money would help fund a 10-year plan built around a blunt problem: the county’s aging combined sewer systems, which carry sewage and stormwater in the same pipes, overflow during storms an average of 76 days a year, pushing untreated waste into the Cooper River and other local waterways.

County commissioners, who have backed putting the question to voters, frame it as infrastructure the region can no longer defer. The plan earmarks roughly $200 million to fix combined sewers that overflow, $75 million for dredging and sediment reduction, and $50 million for rehabilitating sanitary sewer systems across multiple towns — with a long-stated goal of making stretches of the Cooper River swimmable again.

What It Costs You

The mechanism is the county’s open-space tax. The referendum would lift the rate from $0.02 to $0.03 per $100 of assessed value. In plain terms: a home assessed at $500,000 would pay about $150 a year toward open space and this water work, up from $100 today — an increase of $50 a year, or roughly a dollar a week.

On Your Nov. 3 Ballot

  • The question: raise the county open-space tax from 2¢ to 3¢ per $100 assessed
  • Helps pay for: a $400M, 10-year water-quality and sewer plan; the added penny raises about $7M a year, with grants and state loans expected to cover the rest
  • The split: ~$200M combined sewers · $75M dredging/sediment · $50M sanitary sewer rehab · $50M lake restoration · $25M green infrastructure
  • Cost on a $500K home: about $150/yr, up from $100
  • The problem: combined sewers overflow ~76 days a year into local rivers

Supporters call it a generational fix for flooding and water quality; voters wary of any tax increase will weigh that against a higher county bill. A yes vote raises the rate to three cents; a no vote leaves it at two. Either way, it’s a rare local question where the answer is literally on your ballot — not left to someone else to decide.

Details per Camden County commissioners’ water-quality plan and reporting as of late September 2026. The referendum appears on the Nov. 3, 2026 ballot.

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