Hudson County finance officials broke down the tentative tax hikes for each municipality after County Executive Craig Guy’s budget address yesterday, citing rising healthcare costs and the Hudson County Schools of Technology (HCST) budget as two main factors.
By Dan Israel/Hudson County View
Hudson County Director of Finance and Administration Cheryl Fuller and Deputy Director John Inagaki broke down the budget numbers in a sit down interview with HCV.
Inagaki, confirmed that the 2026 county budget totals $769,667,257, before indicating thatthe tax levy has risen to $495,180,876.11, a $42 million or 9.27 percent increase from $453,180,876.11 in 2025.
However, that 9.27 percent is applied to municipalities differently, using a tax allocation formula based on tax ratables in each locale.
Nearly every municipality will see a tax increase, with just one exception.
• Kearny – 14.6%
• Jersey City – 14.42%
• Guttenberg – 13.9%
• West New York – 8.73%
• North Bergen – 6.94%
• Union City – 4.94%
• Bayonne – 4.9%
• Hoboken – 4.6%
• Harrison – 4.6%
• Weehawken – 4.13%
• East Newark – 0.13%
Meanwhile, Secaucus will see a tax decrease of 1.32 percent after facing a massive hike last year.
On the average assessed residential property in Jersey City at $487,500, the county tax increase will equate to $59 per quarter for a total $560 in 2026 ($501 last year).
For the rest of the county, Bayonne will see a $25 quarterly tax increase from the county, Hoboken a $26 increase, Union City a $27 increase, North Bergen a $33 increase, Weehawken a $54 increase, West New York a $36 increase, Kearny a $72 increase, Guttenberg a $48 increase, and Harrison a $26 increase, and East Newark a $16 increase.
Conversely, Secaucus will see a $3 decrease quarterly in county taxes this year.
“If your town equalized value goes up, that means that your portion of the county tax would increase. If your equalized value went down, then your allocation would go down. So in this case, when we look at the equalized values from 2025 to 2026, 10 of the 12 towns actually went up,” explained Fuller.
“East Newark went down very minor, .02 percent, and Secaucus actually went down 1.77 percent. So that was the reason why they actually got a decrease in the county tax levy over last year. In Jersey City, that 14 percent number was partially because their equalized value went up from last year by 13.12 percent. So the equalized value of the town really affects the county allocation of how the taxes are allocated between the towns that specific year.”
Fuller added that Secaucus’ tax base is largely commercial, meaning one sale there could negatively or positively majorly impact their tax base.
Further, the number one budget driver is increases to state health insurance under the State Health Benefits Plan, increasing by 36 percent, or nearly $22 million from $63 million last year to $85 million this year, accounting for more than half of the county’s proposed tax levy.
Fuller told HCV it would be more expensive to exit the SHBP program than to continue to receive employee health insurance under it.
“It’s really been two line items. Health insurance is the lion’s share, I will emphasize that … This is the fourth year in a row we have received these increases, and by far, it’s the largest increase we’ve gotten. In 2023, we got that initial spike. Health insurance went up 21.6 percent. In ’24, it went up 7.4 percent. So still high, but a minor reprieve,” she noted.
“Then in ’25, we went up 16.4 percent. Again, very substantial, considering that’s roughly 10 percent of our budget. So an increase of that magnitude does have an effect throughout the budget. And this year, the increase was 32.6 percent, so that’s why you see a $22 million increase on that line item.”
In addition, the HCST was the second biggest line item, increasing by $11,667,069.50 from $42,248,000 last year to $53,915,069.50 for the upcoming school year.
The increase for HCST comes after the preliminary findings of a forensic audit into the district’s financials that outlined “systemic failure of the accounting and finance department to budget appropriately for the District’s operating expenses from 2022 to 2025.”
This resulted in the need to address the district’s operating deficit of $3.64 million in its – and therefore Hudson County’s – budget.
At the time of budget publication last year, Inagaki said the employee count was 3,155 and that has decreased this year to 3,032. He said there was a reduction of over 100 positions done through attrition.
“We’re looking at every department and trying to maximize what we can with the existing workforce that we have. That’s the biggest thing we’re doing right now.”
Inagaki further stated that the county is looking at other expenses incurred by the various departments, though those have remained flat while other budget pressures have increased expenses.
For example, the two snowstorms in January and February cost at least $1 million, not including employee overtime.
On salaries and wages, Inagaki said the county had to increase the amount that they budgeted last year for overtime – specifically for that snow removal – for employees in the Department of Building and Grounds, the Department of Roads, the Department of Parks, and more.
Over at the Hudson County’s Sheriff’s Office, there has also been a reduction in overtime in the number of hours worked from last year, something he called a “promising sign.”
However, he anticipated the 2026 FIFA World Cup finals taking place at the temporarily renamed New York New Jersey Stadium – better known as MetLife Stadium – to affect staffing, security, and other related issues at the county level.
“Even though we made cuts, we still have to provide those types of services. We didn’t fund vacancies. We didn’t really entertain any requests for new positions unless there was a new operation or something that came into being,” Inagaki explained.
“And even then, we’re just talking about a handful of positions. There were some departments that actually reduced their number of personnel… And on the other expenses, we basically kept a lot of them flat. And the ones that did have to go up, we offset those with cuts.”
Inagaki also said the anticipated surplus in the budget increased by about $7 million from $45 million in 2025 to $52 million in 2026.
Another revenue stream, funds from payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT) deals, increased by $3 million from $9.3 million in 2025 to $12.7 million this year.
“All during the budget year, we try to work to replenish that, because that’s a major revenue in our budget,” Fuller said of the surplus taken from the general fund each year.
“We expect rising health costs again next year, based on the forecast. So, we have to work literally 12 months a year trying to manage this budget and among for the subsequent year.”
