The Hoboken City Council finally approved a $147,171,014.87 budget with a 3.4 percent tax increase, a process that took about four-and-a-half months, at last night’s meeting.
By Daniel Ulloa/Hudson County View
“I’m not really sure what were voting on,” Councilman-at-Large Jim Doyle, the council vice president who was presiding over the meeting since Council President Jen Giattino attended via phone.
Giattino replied that an amendment was sent over and the state signed off on it at 6 p.m. that night.
“It adds $254,000 back into the health insurance line,” Councilwoman-at-Large Emily Jabbour explained.
“Is there any doc at all for us to see? Do you only have one copy?” asked 2nd Ward Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher.
1st Ward Councilman Paul Presinzano said he was not going to vote on something he hadn’t seen, to which Jabbour said nothing else had changed from when the budget was amended but then voted down last month.
The initial preliminary budget that came with a 5.9 percent tax hike was voted down in April.
“It’s adding $250,000 to healthcare. It’s the same budget you’ve been looking at. It’s really not that confusing,” Giattino asserted.
“This has been a long ongoing conversation, and I’m not totally happy where we are … It is not perfect by any means, but is the end of August. We need to move forward,” Jabbour noted.
Presinzano said that the next municipal budget needs to have better planning, urging to start the process as early as September. Jabbour said they could form an ad hoc budget committee to held facilitate the process going forward.
“Why would we create an ad hoc committee when we have a finance committee?” 3rd Ward Councilman Mike Russo questioned.
Giattino replied that she wanted a new committee to focus on the budget alone.
“I want people who are going to offer amendments,” she added.
Fisher noted she and 4th Ward Councilman Ruben Ramos offered a budget amendment and wanted to be on the committee.
“Then why not just change the finance committee?” Russo asked.
“It’s just a working group,” Ramos replied.
Russo also pressed if they could begin working on the next budget in September, but Business Administrator Jason Freeman said they couldn’t do much beyond preliminary discussions since hard figures likely wouldn’t be available until January.
“Budgets are predictions anyway. I think that would be helpful,” Russo stated, to which Freeman agreed.
The amendment passed 6 to 3 with 5th Ward Councilman Phil Cohen, Fisher, Ramos, Giattino, Doyle, and Giattino voting yes. Presinzano, Russo, an Councilman-at-Large Joe Quintero voted no.
On the full budget, Russo reiterated that he wouldn’t support a further burden on taxpayers.
“I think it’s unfair to our residents to burden them with a tax increase. I can’t support this,” he stated.
“I find myself in the same position for entirely different reasons. We’re going to underfund a lot of what we have. Our reserves are going to be depleted,” Quintero noted.
Fisher said she didn’t mind spending their surplus when people are struggling with affordability, therefore she will support the budget.
“I would have liked it to be lower as well. But we have to land in a place to put Hoboken on solid ground. We tried to achieve that,” Ramos interjected.
“I am very concerned with how we are getting to these settlements. I continue to be concerned we are painting ourselves into a corner,” Jabbour said, though said she would still support it.
Presinzano expressed frustration that not one had tried to address eliminating costs.
“Nobody has used the word cut. We can cut. We haven’t done that. I’ve been accused of being a pencil counter,” continuing that he was annoyed that the envelope with his official city ID also contained three pencils.
“What does this bring the overall tax rate to?” Russo asked, to which Freeman said that would bring the municipal spending plan to 3.4 percent.
Cohen noted the cost of operating the city increases every year, especially pension costs.
“The people who work for the city of Hoboken deserve to be fairly paid. Prices are going up for everything for all of us. It’s true for the city of Hoboken as well,” he said, adding that he thought surpluses should only be used as a last resort.
“We need to move on to other things. I’m for this. We need to act responsibly.”
Russo said he wasn’t buying the notion that tax hikes are necessary when no one takes cutting spending seriously.
“I love the analogies, and I love when we cherry pick. When the price of milk goes up … a family has to make a choice. The city doesn’t make the choice to go buy the store brand versus the popular brand,” he asserted.
The overall budget passed by the same 6-3 tally that the amendment was approved by.
One day, I want to see Russo stop BSing about the budget and put up the amendments to reduce spending. Other council members are taking this work seriously and an ad hoc group working earlier is fine.
This was a good effort by members and it should be a benchmark for efforts ahead. Thanks to all those who keep working toward a better outcome, especially Council members Fisher & Presinzano.
How can the taxpayers of Hoboken ever trust Mayor Bhalla and his City Hall Administration when they refuse to make relevant information that has a direct finacial impact on taxpayers or their elected City Council representitives available in a timely manner ?
You can’t- and they really don’t care.