In an editorial, former Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer explains why she believes Hoboken Mayor Emily Jabbour and Jersey City Mayor James Solomon should not be blamed for the finances they inherited from their predecessors.
As the Mayor of Hoboken from 2009 to 2017, I’ve watched the budget crises facing Hoboken and Jersey City with a sad sense of deja vu.
I became mayor during an extremely turbulent time. My opponent in the 2009 mayor’s race had been arrested for taking bribes, and the fiscal irresponsibility of the preceding administration had resulted in a takeover of Hoboken’s finances by the State of New Jersey.
The State fiscal monitor had imposed a 70% increase in Hoboken’s municipal taxes (yes, you read that correctly!) to close the structural deficit.
Even that was not enough. Over the next few years, we did the hard work needed to put Hoboken back on a sound fiscal path. We were able to reduce taxes by 10% by cutting spending and brought Hoboken from junk bond status to AA +.
Sadly, Mayor Ravi Bhalla returned to the old fiscally irresponsible budget practices that had led Hoboken into this crisis, as did Mayor Steven Fulop in Jersey City. In both cases I believe this was because their highest priority was their ambition for higher office.
As a result, both Hoboken Mayor Jabbour and Jersey City Mayor Solomon face huge fiscal crises caused by the irresponsible budget practices of their predecessors.
Mayors Jabbour and Solomon deserve credit for honestly exposing the full scale of the problems their cities face and proposing real solutions.
Unfairly, but not surprisingly, they are being blamed for the pain associated with any honest solution. This is the equivalent of blaming the doctor who diagnosed your cancer for the fact that radiation and chemo are painful treatments.
Mayor Jabbour and the Hoboken City Council should be commended for working together to adopt a budget with an 11% tax increase that will provide some breathing room for more sustainable solutions.
Mayor Solomon, facing an even more severe crisis than Hoboken, deserves enormous credit for negotiating with the State for unprecedented assistance, allowing Jersey City that breathing room as well.
Given the breathtaking scope of the crisis Mayor Fulop left behind, the arrangement also apparently requires a 15% to 20% tax increase this year. It’s understandable that the Jersey City Council would need some time to digest the harsh reality the city faces.
Given the scale of the problem, there is simply no painless way to dig Jersey City out of the hole that Mayor Fulop left behind, and Jersey City taxes are going to have to increase substantially as part of any realistic solution.
Imagine what the tax increase would be without the $120 million in State aid, since a 15% to 20% tax increase is necessary even with that aid!
Without the assistance that Mayor Solomon worked so hard to obtain from the State, Jersey City taxpayers might have been facing a 70% tax increase or more, just as Hoboken did in 2009.
Unlike Jersey City today, Hoboken did not receive any financial assistance from the State of New Jersey.
I hope the Jersey City Council will look to Hoboken’s example – both back in 2009 and now, and work with Mayor Solomon and the State to put Jersey City back on the fiscally responsible path its residents, employees and taxpayers deserve.
Dawn Zimmer was the mayor of Hoboken between 2009 and 2017.
