The Jersey City Council will vote on a $724.8 million municipal budget at a special meeting tomorrow at 4 p.m., about four months after introducing a roughly $695 million budget.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
The municipal spending plan is about $104 million more than last year’s $620 million budget, which came with a $967 tax decrease per household assessed at $470,000 as the result of American Rescue Plan Funds.
When this year’s preliminary budget came out, it had a municipal tax increase of $1,030 per household, which the city blamed on the board of education – whose nearly $974 million budget came with about a $1,608 tax increase per $460,000 home.
The BOE argued that the increases were necessary in order to fully fund the budget after more massive state aid cuts. However, last month they were informed they would receive about $89 million from the state Department of Education due to an ARP provision.
The municipal tax increase for the new budget was not immediately available on Monday.
Getting to second and final reading was not as smooth as it could’ve been since the city had to make an application to the Local Finance Board “to raise their cash deficit outside of the Appropriations CAP,” as HCV first reported last month.
The Local Finance Board approved a $36,133,898 proposed CAP waiver at their October 12th meeting, according to a copy of their agenda and based on the fact the city could not move forward without first receiving state approval.
