Jersey City Mayor James Solomon said all financial probes were welcome and no new city land sales were planned during an impromptu media scrum during yesterday’s marathon City Council meeting.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View (video by Dan Ulloa)
The mayor decided to take questions from reporters as several outlets that don’t typically cover council meetings attended to see the vote on the proposed 20 percent tax rate on the third quarter tax bills, but Solomon pulled the resolution, as HCV first reported.
“There is not and never has been a formal arrangement with Trenton … Trenton has been clear to Jersey City that if they’re putting real aid and support in the form of loans and additional aid, that we need to do our part,” Solomon said when asked if the $120 million in state aid was contingent on a 20 percent tax increase.
“So Trenton understands that we understand that. I think no one would argue that we would ask Trenton for $120 million and keep taxes flat. So we are in active, ongoing conversations with the universe in Trenton, so the governor’s office, the DCA – Department of Community Affairs, Senate, and Assembly as we’re moving forward.”
The question came about since Council members Joel Brooks, Jake Ephros, and Eleana Little said Monday they would be supporting the tax bill proposal since state aid “is conditioned on getting our house in order through increased taxes.”
However, the council would have voted the measure down if it remained on the agenda, so it will now go back to the drawing board ahead of a special meeting on July 1st.
Later, Solomon was asked what he thought of the resolution co-sponsored by Councilmen Tom Zuppa and Rolando Lavarro calling for an investigation into the Mayor Steven Fulop administration’s finances between 2019 and 2025.
“I think it’s a great idea. People ask me at community meetings and other press interviews what I think and I say ‘My job now … is to fix our problem. To fix it.’ So I can’t expend city resources on investigatory powers, nor is that really the job fo the mayor,” he replied.
“But we have welcomed every investigation, we will cooperate with every investigation and the comptroller is in a unique position because he has subpoena power to analyze this …”
The non-binding resolution passed unanimously (9-0) and the comptroller’s office declined to comment on the measure on Tuesday.
Finally, Solomon addressed the use of land sales, of which he has been highly critical of Fulop, noting he used this tactic to the tune of $667 million during his three terms as mayor and has been steadfast that he does not believe it’s a sustainable practice.
“So here’s what we cannot do with land sales: What Fulop did is he used that one-time sale to plug a recurring budget gap, right? So take last year: $33 million in land sales, this year we have $33 million missing. And just to give people a sense, I think this is important information, that is a, by itself, an eight percent tax increase,” stated Solomon.
“So we’re talking about a 20 percent tax increase, right? Talking about obviously withdrawing it, but nearly half of that increase is simply because we don’t have that land, where’s the $33 million coming from? And obviously the careless disregard for the well-being of the people of the city … I would say I think it speaks for itself.”
He continued that if the city was to ever evaluate future land sales, he would only consider it if there were “a match” between a the sale of the land and one-time cost, not a recurring cost.
With that in mind, Solomon said there are no forthcoming plans to sell any city land.
“We are not moving forward with any land sales that were not moving already, right? We have not looked at city assets and said ‘we’re gonna sell this because of the budget crisis.'”
