In a letter to the editor, Jersey City resident Yvonne Balcer explains why she feels the city’s introduced $886.5 budget with a 15.5 tax increase is irresponsible for homeowners.
Dear Editor,
So now the city council has accepted resolution 10.2, which introduces the mayor’s budget, a 15.5 percent increase for taxpayers.
The mayor appears to be saying he had nothing to do with the budget increase. Still, he, along with council members Ridley, Lavarro, and Gilmore, was part of the Fulop administration that voted on spending that contributed to the budget increase.
Mayor Solomon played the same game as former Councilman Fulop, who ran for office and said he did not vote on budgets, but Solomon voted on the contracts that contributed to spending, starting with the 2018 budget, which was $593 million.
Now, compared to his present budget of $886 million, an increase of $293 million in eight years. That is much higher than the $255 million he accused Fulop of hiding.
Mayor Solomon accused his predecessor of underfunding the budget. Well, I am accusing Mayor Solomon of the same thing.
On page 95, in the mayor’s budget, he has $6.24 million for tax appeals. But in the Friendly Budget, page 6 for the 2025 and 2024 budget years, those figures were $34 million and $49 million, an underassessment of what the city paid out.
These appeals happen because landlords cannot pass on a tax increase to rent control tenants. The landlords pay the tax increase and win in Hudson County Tax Court, automatically.
So, the small taxpayers are paying for these refunds, usually as bonds in addition to their own tax increase.
Let’s remember Councilman Solomon put Portside under rent control because the tenants balked when the school system raised taxes when they lost state funding.
If a landlord raises his rents 15.5 percent under rent control, the city council would use public tax dollars to sue the landlord. So, I refer to rent control tenants as privileged people.
If I don’t pay the 15.5 percent municipal increase, 17 percent school increase, and 14 percent county increase, my property, as well as my neighbors will be in tax lien this November, and the lien sale will take place in December 2026.
Rent control and affordable housing tenants are exempt from this tax increase, but Mayor Solomon and the city council want more affordable housing for taxpayers to subsidize.
Yvonne Balcer
Jersey City resident
