The Bayonne City Council passed a temporary budget of $52,313,550 at their first meeting of the year yesterday, which only last about 15 minutes.
By Daniel Ulloa/Hudson County View
The Bayonne temporary budget included $17,569,855 for debt service and $34,743,695 for operating expenses. The operating expenses do not exceed 26.25 percent of the previous year’s budget as required by state law, officials said at the meeting.
The biggest expense is the salaries and wages of police officers, which is around $6 million, followed by the fire department, whose wages and salaries come out to about $5.6 million. Additionally, the Employee Group Health plan for the city costs about $4.4 million.
Included in the temporary budget is $712,307 for the parking utility. Salaries and wages make up $240,000 of the budget, while payment of the bond principal comes out to $260,000.
2nd Ward Councilwoman Jackie Weimmer attended remotely and participated by cell phone, which was allowed after a unanimous vote (4-0).
The temporary spending plan then passed unanimously without further discussion (5-0). While billed as a reorganization meeting, the governing body didn’t actually do so, therefore La Pelusa remains the council president for 2024.
He first assumed the role on July 1st, 2022 at a reorg meeting after Mayor Jimmy Davis was sworn in for his third term.
In a brief interview after the meeting, La Pelusa said he is focused on development and bringing jobs to town.
“There’s a lot of different projects going on. I want to complete the projects. We have a number of projects bringing jobs into town,” he explained.
La Pelusa said he is specifically looking to make progress on the UPS site development and ongoing warehouse development projects, along with the ferry, which received a $650,000 grant in May 2018 and a 10-year land lease in February 2020.
However, there has been very little, if any, movement since then.
“We’ve been pushing hard to try to get the ferry going. Unfortunately, there are holdovers. But between COVID and just the way the economy is going, there is nothing you can do but hold over.”