The Hoboken City Council approved a preliminary $144,253,164.85 budget with a 5.9 percent tax increase at a lightning fast virtual meeting last night.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
The meeting, conducted via Zoom, lasted all of seven minutes, with the roll call taking nearly as long as the public session.
The only thing that prolonged the session beyond a couple minutes was Manny Rivera Soler asking Business Administrator Jason Freeman what had caused insurance rates to rise. drastically.
“An industry standard is about a seven percent year over year increase and that was our actuary used as their modeling number to increase our rates from ’23 into ’24,” he replied.
“Luckily, the health benefits program that gets managed by the State of New Jersey is actually seeing a higher rate of increase than we are as we are just mirroring the state’s plan rather than being in it, so we’re actually seeing some savings relative to some other communities across the state.”
Council President Jen Giattino then called for the vote, which was approved unanimously (6-0), with 1st Ward Councilman Paul Presinzano, 2nd Ward Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher, and 3rd Ward Councilman Mike Russo absent.
Those four, along with 4th Ward Councilman Ruben Ramos, voted against the budget at the council’s April 3rd meeting, causing it to fail 5-4, citing dissatisfaction with getting the municipal spending plan the day of the meeting.
Budget workshops are now underway, with the virtual session on Administration, Finance, City Clerk, and Law Department commencing shortly after the council meeting ended yesterday.
The governing body has another special virtual meeting scheduled for Wednesday, April 24th at 5 p.m., with a regular meeting set for tomorrow at 7 p.m.