The Jersey City Council passed an emergency temporary appropriation (ETA) of $611,835,236.47 during last night’s meeting that spilled over into early this morning.
By Daniel Ulloa/Hudson County View
“We have $46 million in debt service. Is that part of the $109 million [in unpaid bills]?” Ward B Councilman Joel Brooks asked.
“The 109 million has a lot of different obligations in it. So, part of it would be that 46, nut not all of that 46,” Assistant Business Administrator Peter Horton replied.
Brooks then followed up with inquires along those same lines.
“[Finance Director] Bill [Viqueira] said we have been paying down some of this as we have been going. So effectively, $109 million was the number we started out with. But that’s not necessarily where we are right now?” he asked.
“We have debt servicing obligations. We have to pay the interest and everything. So those are paid throughout the year,” Horton answered.
Ward C Councilman Tom Zuppa questioned if it was possible to delay the vote.
“Given the fact that we withheld the tax increase conversation and the administration is committed to looking for cuts and the fact that the ETA is essentially six to seven months of a budget, I’m going to vote no,” he stated.
“ … Is it imperative that we take a vote today, given the fact that there’s going to be a conversation about spending cuts?”
Horton answered that they needed to vote immediately, otherwise the city would run out of cash flow, which is needed to cover expenses such as employee salaries and wages.
“So that goes through July?” Zuppa asked.
“ … This would start in July and go forward to I believe the end of August, September … The budget would override any spending of the ETA, should it be adopted in August,” Horton replied.
Ward D Councilman Jake Ephros said that he was hopeful this would be the last temporary appropriation before the budget adoption.
“Just want to make clear to the public, as we postponed the other votes, on the tax bill tonight … it seemed like the least bad path. But we heard really loud and clear from residents just the fears of what that would do and being pushed out as a result,” he said.
“Really appreciate so many residents speaking so passionately about this. Our commitment is just to fight like hell, particularly to take on the state and its limitations on progressive taxation. This is one of the main constraints we’re facing right now. In the coming days, I want to explore what that campaign is going to look like.”
Ephros, along with Brooks and Ward E Councilwoman Eleana Little, supported a proposal from Mayor James Solomon to submit the third quarter tax bills with a 20 percent tax hike, though the resolution ended up being withdrawn, both as HCV first reported.
“ … It seemed like the least bad option. That was how it was presented. If we do not pass any Q3 tax increase, then the entirety of the increase for 2026 will be concentrated in your 4th quarter tax bill, and that was a scenario I felt was very unfair and would be very painful to homeowners,” Little explained.
” … My thinking was that we pass the estimate so we can spread out the burden … And then go through the budget process where we do go line item by line item with a fine-tooth comb and be able to look for areas of savings or potential revenue generators like the traffic enforcement that is ramping up.”
She repeated that their statement did not mean they wanted to raise taxes by 20 percent, but it was simply the least bad option available.
“We are committed to listening, and even if there’s no good option, we want to work with the community and pick the least bad options. That being said, gotta keep the government open the next two months,” she added.
Little also said that she’d like to get started on the budgeting process earlier next year, a point that was piggybacked by Ward F Councilman Frank “Educational” Gilmore.
“I just want to urge the administration for the next year, if we can get away from having temporary appropriations in the third quarter. Hopefully, we can get ahead of that in the next budget cycle,” he expressed.
Further, Councilman at-Large Rolando Lavarro said he would not be supporting the resolution.
“I requested information on that and didn’t receive it, and I’m not prepared to authorize a temporary budget absent that information. I’m going to fight for every family in this city before I ask them to pay for anything more. Before I vote for any tax increase, I need to know that every stone has been turned over,” he declared.
“That means collecting every dollar developers owe us through that PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) audit plus the interest and penalties … We’ve got the developer fees and affordable housing trust fund dollars and other ways to utilize those dollars to provide budget relief.”
The Jersey City Council passed the measure 8-1, with Lavarro voting no.
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