The Hoboken City Council narrowly approved a preliminary amended $150,267,179.02 budget with a 4.57 percent tax hike at a special virtual meeting last night.
By Daniel Ulloa/Hudson County View
The initial $151,224,025.01 budget with a 6.9 percent tax hike passed unanimously (8-0) in May, but no headway has been made since then, necessitating $43,093,332.84 in temporary budget appropriations made earlier this month, both as HCV first reported.
“So, the state has approved the budget amendment before the council this evening,” Business Administrator Caleb Stratton explained.
He said the administration was seeking to change group health plan appropriations to save money.
“We agree with the clarification the state provided?” Council President Jim Doyle asked.
“Correct,” Stratton said.
“These amendments, they did not come through the subcommittee. They were worked on by yourself and [2nd Ward] Councilwoman [Tiffanie] Fisher, I’m assuming?” 3rd Ward Councilman Mike Russo asked.
“That is correct, yes,” Doyle replied.
“Am I to understand that the group health is not a reduction, but it’s just a shifting?” Russo asked.
“We had put it in the wrong place,” Stratton sought to clarify.
Russo pressed on, noting that former Business Administrator Jason Freeman cautioned about the growing structural deficit and the diminishing surplus, asking if this iteration of the budget would actually take another $300,000 from the surplus ($600,000 total).
“That is correct,” Doyle replied.
“Do you see this as a big issue?” Russo asked Stratton.
“It creates a year-over-year increase over what we’re using … It increases budgetary pressure for next year because we will need to use the same amount of surplus,” he noted of a potential high tax increase in 2026.
“And we don’t have any plans for a reduction in our structural deficit for next year right?” Russo asked, to which Stratton said is correct.
However, Fisher noted that the parking utility has been asking to cut their operating expenses by $300,000, to which Russo said the garage revenue is supposed to go up by the same amount.
“It’s surplus,” Doyle interjected.
“The $265,000 of the group health [insurance], that is coming from surplus or not?” inquired 1st Ward Councilman Paul Presinzano.
“It’s a reduction in our appropriation, which will likely lead to the use of healthcare reserves to fully fund healthcare,” Doyle said.
“We’re cutting a Division of Housing operating expenses. Between the lead expenditures, between all the rent control stuff going on. They’ve been understaffed … Our surplus was raided to get here. I feel as though we could have done better,” Presinzano declared.
He also claimed that since none of the changes went through subcommittee, protocol was not followed without any explanation.
“The budget has always been treated differently … This particular amendment was distributed to the subcommittee, but it’s not necessarily essential that the subcommittee have a meeting to discuss the budget amendment,” Doyle replied.
4th Ward Councilman Ruben Ramos agreed to a point, but said the council majority didn’t agree to use that amount of the surplus and wanted to know how they ended up where they were.
“The sausage gets made in various ways when it comes to the budget … The goal is to get to five [votes] and how you get there is how you get there … Many members of the council didn’t want to dip into the surplus … Why did we make the decision to get into those reserves?” he asked.
“This is a minor change to give taxpayers relief this year. We have a bigger problem next year,” Fisher remarked, adding the the housing division did not spend all of their funds last year and therefore still has a substantial budget.
“Whoever is the mayor, we have a real issue next year,” she added.
“We overcharge our residents year over year so we can generate this surplus,” Russo disagreed, reiterating that the finance subcommittee should not have been bypassed.
“There’s a deadline,” Doyle said of the state potentially stepping in.
5th Ward Councilman Phil Cohen, the finance subcommittee chair, argued that nothing was done differently with the municipal spending plan than what had been done in prior years.
“A surplus in the budget is good municipal budget practice. That’s what the state recommends. That’s what our ordinance recommends,” he declared.
Presinzano remain frustrated, indicating that some of his colleagues had expressed a need to raise taxes to keep city services operating as they need to be and he questioned this mindset.
“We are raising taxes,” Doyle noted.
“Even more than seven percent,” Presinzano stated.
“We need healthy surpluses. If we continue to raid them, that’s a problem for us. When an actual rainy day comes, we will have nothing there,” began Councilman-at-Large Joe Quintero, stressing that city services should not have to be cut to balance a budget.
“Unless we compromise, we face a state takeover which means that we lose control.”
Councilwoman-at-Large Emily Jabbour concurred, highlighting that this entire budgeting process was done outside of the finance subcommittee that she once chaired and that a compromise was far better than a state takeover.
The introduced budget was approved 5-3, with Presinzano, Russo, and Ramos voting no.
“I was there in 2005 when there was a rumor of a state takeover: They’ll just say to you ‘raise taxes’ Hoboken is a wealthy city in the state’s eyes,” stated Tony Soares, a former council president, during public comment.
Also during public comment, mayoral candidate Dini Ajmani noted she took structural deficit concerns seriously and was disappointed the governing body did not.
“I was surprised the Council is doubling down on those gimmicks and band-aids,” she stated.
It should be noted the a large portion of the voting base for Councilman Russo, Ramos and Presinzano live in tax subsidized areas of Hoboken .The residents of the rest of the City are saddled with paying the full ever increasing the tax burden.
It should be noted that outside of the housing authority, all units are rent controlled, which means that an increase in taxes is passed along to residents.
And lets not forget that the luxury PILOTed buildings do not pay the tax increase at all, which is a large portion of other council members voting base.
Theres less than 10 piloted buildings in Hoboken
Luxury PILOTed Residential buildings
Correct — and this has been pointed out to Team Bhalla for YEARS! Ravi is quiet, Emily says nothing, Phil offers nothing and Doyle wakes up every day kicking himerself for agreeing to run again back in 2021, The last 8 years have been about Team Bhalla postioning themeselves for higher offices. The only ways we dig out of this mess are for some constituents to take a haircut; municipal workers get lower raises and we hire fewer of them, homeowners get whacked higher taxes etc. The only out for the state is to begin combining services across municipalities – and good luck with that….
The state DOES have good schools – but how much of that has to do with parental involvement? Trains don’t on time, pipes keep breaking – shame…..
Tax hikes aside, this is excellent journalism. Report what happened, don’t slant the discussion, let the reader decide. Thank you.
You’re welcome and thank you.
If Presinzano is unhappy with the budget solution this year, he has to make working with his colleagues primary not backing Ramos for political reasons. Doyle was right to find a workable solution. Do better, Paul.