The Kearny Town Council voted 5-4 in favor of a $99 million budget with a 14 percent tax increase, about six weeks after a similar budget with a 4.5 percent tax hike was voted down.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
Mayor Carol Jean Doyle, along with Council members Marytrine De Castro, Jose Rodrigues, Fred Esteves, and Gerald Ficeto voted yes. Council members George Zapata, Dennis Solano, Eileen Eckel, and Stathis Theodoropoulos voted no.
This municipal spending plan shifts an additional $4 million ($44,550,000 compared to $48,550,000) to be raised from taxes.
“We’ve been loud and clear that Kearny’s finances are a ticking time bomb, and now it’s finally blowing up in taxpayers’ faces. At the eleventh hour, the mayor added millions of dollars to the budget, sticking Kearny families with a 14% tax hike. It’s a bait and switch. Residents packed the meeting and spoke out against this because this will be a huge burden on Kearny taxpayers, and they know it didn’t have to be this way,” Theodoropoulos said in a statmenrt.
“None of this happened overnight. The warning signs were clear, but they were ignored. Rather than addressing our financial challenges early and responsibly, the administration waited until we had no other choice. Now residents are being asked to pay for years of financial mismanagement and inaction.”
Kearny CFO Shuaib Firozvi said at the May 26th council meeting that if the proposed budget had been approved last night, the town’s surplus would be expected to run out by the end of next year.
Further, that vote came just before the Democratic primary race for four town council seats, where Doyle’s ticket split 2-2 with a mostly incumbent ticket, as HCV first reported.
Those opposing Doyle’s team, with Theodoropoulos (who lost) and 1st Ward Councilman George Zapata (who won) being the most vocal, were insistent that the town was in the midst of a financial crisis.
“This is why we’ve been sounding the alarm and asking for a real plan, and we still haven’t seen one. The council wasn’t given any alternatives, just this tax increase. There’s no plan for next year, either. This isn’t fair to our residents and it’s not sustainable,” Theodoropoulos added.
Doyle said Zapata and Theodoropoulos did not provide anything of substance related to the budget in the past (they were removed from the council’s finance committee in January) and also expressed optimism about the long-term financial health of the town.
“They were both on the Finance Committee and said nothing in the ways of suggestions even though I continued to complain that the 3 million taken from operating and used for the last ten years to liquidate the water utility needed to stop,” she told HCV.
“Had we raised the taxes 2% each year we would not be in this situation. The main reason is the health benefits and Passaic Valley Sewage Authority – big jumps. I am confident that we will turn this deficit around. The last year-and-a-half I have, with the support of most of the council, made changes. I will make the list so that ‘they’ can see the plan.”
No responsibility, no accountability, no plan to avoid next year, just a blame game. Thats not leadership.
Shame on all of you who voted to gut the taxpayers again. Once again a vote to benefit the welfare cases, illegals and other parasites living off tax money they didnt earn. The rest of us who work pay for those who don’t by providing all the “entitlements” all of you give them. The parking situation gets worse every year, you do nothing, half the rentals in this town have twice as many people living in them and it gets worse and worse. You are a disgrace and you’ll never fix the budget. Shame on you.