After the Hoboken City Council voted 5-3 to approve the budget last week, 2nd Ward Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher, a mayoral candidate, is releasing her trust, transparency, and financial responsibility plan.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“With our city facing a looming budget shortfall and tough fiscal challenges in 2026, I stepped up to put residents before politics, ensure stability, maintain the services we all rely on, and minimize the impact on taxpayers,” Fisher said in a statement about why she voted for the $150,267,179.02 budget with a 4.5 percent tax increase last week.
“But no single budget can fix a system where politics too often comes before people — like we saw this year. Hoboken needs a different kind of mayor, and a different kind of government — one where the City Council and the Mayor work together to put residents first.”
After multiple delays, the council narrowly voted 5-3 to approve the annual municipal spending plan, with Fisher, 5th Ward Councilman Phil Cohen, Councilwoman-at-Large Emily Jabbour, Councilman-at-Large Joe Quintero, and Council President Jim Doyle voting yes, as HCV first reported.
Those who voted in the affirmative, like Fisher, said it was the only move available to prevent a state takeover.
She said that to prevent such a dire situation in the future, she would approach the budget in a much different fashion if elected mayor.
“Hoboken deserves leadership that manages taxpayer dollars responsibly and opens City Hall to the people it serves. Trust starts with transparency — and that’s the kind of leadership I’ll deliver from day one,” Fisher declared.
Her 10-page policy platform pledges fiscal discipline and smart spending, transparency and accessibility, as well as partnering with the city council and community.
For example, she commits to creating Hoboken’s first five-year financial forecast and eliminating wasteful spending, open City Hall to residents through monthly office hours, hosting joint town halls with the council.
To that end, she said her collaboration with the city council would include her attending all meetings, holding public caucuses, and supporting good ideas no matter who comes up with them.
“I haven’t just cast votes, I’ve shaped policy, fought corruption, and been a consistent voice against wasteful spending. That’s what leadership is all about,” Fisher concluded.
“As Mayor, I’ll build a government that works for Hoboken – transparent, fiscally responsible, and always accountable to the people.”
The Mile Square City mayoral field for the non-partisan November 4th contest also includes 3rd Ward Councilman Mike Russo, 4th Ward Councilman Ruben Ramos, Jabbour, former U.S. Treasury official Dini Ajmani, and perennial candidate Pat Waiters.
Finally, someone steps up to address Hobokens’ future with the financial disaster left in the wake of Ravi Bhalla’s disastrous budgeting.
Thank you!
hi mr charles do u know who is in charge of the budget- is it the mayor or the city council
ill give u a hint……it is the city council
Hello chuckie, the mayor is the executive and it’s his budget presented. The mayor is in charge of the presnted budget each year.
The City Council works from the budget’s presentation and needs five votes to obtain final approval.
This year, Bhalla presented another big budget increase, this one at 7%. The City Council scrambled to find five votes to approve it with a spending package reducing his tax increase to 4.5%
Short of that, Hoboken was looking at another fiscal state monitor and State takeover.
Now she’s like ” who me??????
Let’s face it – Taxpayers are doomed. Fisher seemed to me like the best of the lot but this is 10 pages of BS. If she has a five year financial plan to address the fiscal crisis Bhalla created, where is it? She’s been on the Council talking away and nauseum for 10 years. If she has a plan where the H is it? ” I’ll find new revenues without raising taxes and cut “wasteful spending while making sure the unions are well compensated” is the same Bhalla BS that led us into this mess.
She was okay with a literal 80 million dollar land swap of our municipal garage in exchange for water rights of a sunken purr – to a convicted felon developer Which then protect the view of a 1 million dollar condo she left empty and then sold it after the land swap happened and gained her a much higher sale price
Didn’t Dr. Michael Russo recently go bankrupt while living in a large cheap Church Tower apartment?
Yeah we should trust his financial expertise !
Russo is a topflight Bankruptcy Doctor.
… then you light a match.
Over $2,000,000 went poof.
Have never been a Fisher fan, with her loopy stance on weed and 20,000-word emails. But gotta say she’s the only candidate coming up with fiscal ideas. I mean, do you really think Russo or Ramos have any clue or realistic grasp on finances? If so, why haven’t we heard them? Ramos’s big idea is to make the ferries tax payer supported, LOL we get that you’ve never had a job in the business world but geez try to be at least slightly serious, dude.
Haven’t heard hardly anything from Jabbour, if she has a fiscal plan, please let me know. and you’d figure someone who worked in the Treasury department would have something worth saying on the topic, but I haven’t seen anything serious from Ajmani either.
C’mon folks, give voters something to work with here. Because if you don’t, you’re looking at Mayor Fisher.
Here we go
The Fisher whisper campaign
“ Ramos is just a teacher”
A CFO is not a CEO
CFO’s are numbers crunchers snd just fire people- they listen to to the CEO. They dont use vision or leadership.
Retread Dave Dumbo likes to put forth at Tiffany is like a CEO and we’re hiring a CEO however she was never a CEO she was a CFO and she does not disclose why she no longer works in that field and why she hasn’t in over a decade!
Mello was that was demoted from one of the best high schools in New Jersey and sent to one of their less desirable public schools in JerseyCity
A guy that was such a pain in the ass to dawn zimmer that she didn’t want him to run with her anymore and didn’t even bother to tell him why she was stepping down and he got stuck running with Anthony Roman!
He came in 12 out of 14
If you don’t think Ramos, is qualified to be mayor because he’s a schoolteacher, then David Mello isn’t qualified to be on the council either
I’d rather see nothing in the middle of Labor Day weekend from the other candidates than anything from Tiffanie Fisher, which is just a bunch of mushy mouth lecturing.
She’s a micromanage who will never get anything done.
Can you imagine if her emails are this long just being in charge of a single ward what she’s gonna do when she has an entire city to deal with?
It’ll be easier to get toilet paper in Russia than see anything approved in the city of Tiffany is the mayor.
Not helping, guys. Voters need to see realistic fiscal plans from the candidates, where are they? It’s telling that instead of talking up your preferred candidates, all you’ve done is badmouth Fisher. That’s the problem. When all you do is sh%ttalk others, it leads voters to believe it’s because your candidate has nothing to offer.
Give voters something to work with. If all you do is attack, you’ll have no one else to blame when you lose.