Op-Ed: Hoboken’s budget reckoning: Public workers deserve a seat at the table

In an editorial, AFSCME Local No. 3703 President Dan Drobnis, who represents Hoboken municipal employees, gives his take on why public workers deserve a seat on the table as the city reconciles their budget.

Hoboken’s recent approval of a $43 million temporary appropriation is more than a stopgap, it is a flashing alarm. Years of short-term fixes, opaque budgeting, and a lack of responsible development have created a deep structural deficit.

Since 2017, pension, healthcare, and debt-service costs have surged 133 percent, with no new ratables to cover them.

Our municipal workforce did not create this crisis, but we are the first to feel its impact.

AFSCME Local 3703 members have served without a contract for eight months, enduring a 115 percent spike in health premiums and facing another 36.5 percent hike next year.

Balancing the books on the backs of public employees, through layoffs, wage freezes, or benefit cuts, would dismantle essential services and deepen distrust.

Hoboken can no longer engage in paralysis by analysis by leaders who play political games to pursue their own interest, nor can the city afford to be guided by a small but loud minority of NIMBYs who own brownstones and second homes yet refuse to allow new housing for people like AFSCME’s membership.

What drives these cost pressures? Scarcity.

Our stalled development pipeline has throttled housing supply, and the numbers tell the story: over the past decade, typical rents in Hoboken have jumped nearly 60 percent, compared with roughly 35 percent in Jersey City and about 30 percent in Manhattan, highlighting a crisis that only smart, mixed-income growth can solve.

Tangible Solutions for Fiscal Health and Housing Affordability

• Zero-Based Budgeting Justify every dollar from the ground up, directing savings into pension and healthcare reserves.

• Full Transparency Publish live budget dashboards and host quarterly town halls that bring together labor, residents, and business leaders.

• Smart Growth to Expand Ratables Update zoning and streamline approvals for mid-rise, mixed-income housing along transit corridors. Tie developer incentives to community benefits, including affordable units, workforce housing, and contributions to municipal reserves.

• Public-Private Partnerships for Middle-Income Housing Hoboken already has an Affordable Housing Trust Fund seeded by developer fees, where landlords pay a set fee under our rent-control ordinance and non-residential projects contribute a percentage of construction costs.

As a licensed real estate broker, I have seen how public funds combined with private capital deliver real results: community land trusts preserve units permanently and Housing Trust Fund subsidies make middle-income homes attainable.

Let us strengthen and expand these vehicles so every new development contributes to both our tax base and our collective affordability.

• Labor-Management Collaboration Protect collective bargaining and ensure competitive compensation. Include union representatives at every stage of fiscal and development planning.

What We’ll Demand from the Next Mayor

AFSCME Local 3703 will back candidates who pledge to:

• Close Hoboken’s structural deficit without sacrificing workers or core services

• Champion smart development that grows our tax base while preserving affordability

• Embed labor voices in budget and development decisions from day one

As Hoboken weighs its municipal budget and negotiates with employee unions, the city stands at a crossroads.

The statistics are stark: the overwhelming majority of public workers, essential staff, and even middle-income families are, by any reasonable measure, priced out of the city they sustain.

This is not merely a personal hardship, it is a civic emergency that demands an integrated policy approach, transparent budgeting, and the elevation of worker voices in every major decision.

We are not here to obstruct, we are here to build. Hoboken’s future depends on leaders who see public employees as partners, not line items, and who pursue development that fuels opportunity rather than frustration.

If Hoboken hopes to remain more than a playground for the privileged, a true community, then its budget priorities and housing policies must catch up to its ideals.

The time for public workers to have a seat at the table is not a distant hope, but a present imperative.