Hoboken Councilmen Paul Presinzano and Mike Russo are proposing municipal budget changes to get the 18.9 percent tax increase in the initial budget down to a range of about 3.2 to 5.3 percent.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“When a normal Hoboken family faces high fixed costs, they adjust their variable costs accordingly. We expect the same from our government. I have said it every year: there is no real plan to fix this. This year, we are the plan,” Russo said in a statement.
“The one core theme is that residents are just done with hearing that costs are out of our control. They elect us to give solutions, not reasons. So I have spent many late nights working on a fiscally responsible budget and pushing for structural changes, because that is the only answer that actually works,” added Presinzano.
The City Council voted 6-3 to introduce a $152,128,410.25 municipal budget with a nearly 19 percent tax increase last month, seeking to address a $17 million deficit that Mayor Emily Jabbour brought to the public’s attention in March, both as HCV first reported.
Presinzano, Russo, and 2nd Ward Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher voted no.
The Russo-Presinzano amendment package identifies between $9.5 million and $11 million in levy reductions through structural levers, none of which require laying off a single employee or eliminating a single city service, they said Friday evening.
“No department should be budgeted at more than 3% above what it actually spent in 2025. Applied consistently, this one principle produces between $3 million and $5.1 million in savings,” the 1st and 3rd Ward council representatives argued.
“The general liability insurance line alone was budgeted at $3.26 million against 2025 actual spending of $1.58 million. That is a 107% overstatement on a single line.”
The councilmen are also suggesting healthcare plan restructuring to save $2.5 million, reviewing municipal salaries, overtime, and compliance by combining, restructuring, and/or eliminating positions to save $1.5 million.
Further, Presinzano and Russo recommend selling naming rights for Hoboken’s parks and piers, along with sponsorships on municipal vehicles and the HOP, auditing every city lease, and calculating city ratables correctly, which could add up to another $2.5 million saved.
They also explain that if $3 million in operating expenses are cut, the tax increase would be 5.3 percent, a number that goes down to 3.2 percent if $4.5 million in expenses are cut, with full implementation of the plan bringing the tax hike to just below three percent.
For the average Hoboken homeowner, the difference between the administration’s introduced budget and this amendment can mean hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars a year that stays in Hoboken households, not in a budget padded well beyond what actual 2025 spending justifies.
“Hoboken is not broke. Hoboken is not unmanageable. Hoboken has a spending problem, a management structure problem, and a habit of calling structural failures unavoidable. They are not. We have the data. We have the plan. Now we need the votes,” Russo concluded.
“Residents elect us to solve problems, not to explain why they cannot be solved. This package does exactly that. The savings are there. The will to find them is what has been missing,” noted Presinzano.
In response, Jabbour called out her former colleagues for political gamesmanship, saying their suggestions were sent to the City Clerk at 4 p.m. today without sharing them to the mayor’s office or having meaning dialogue with the rest of the council.
” … It is political theater that Hoboken soundly rejected. These are ideas built on assumptions that do not reflect the reality of the City that they dressed up as a plan. Hoboken residents deserve an honest conversation about revenues, expenses, contracts, services, and long-term fiscal responsibility. And selling naming rights to public assets is not a budget strategy,” she declared.
“Hoboken is not going to balance its budget by slapping corporate logos on every park bench, playground, and public building until the city looks like Times Square. My administration remains open to productive conversations with any council member who is interested in working collaboratively to address the very real fiscal challenges we face in order to deliver a responsible budget to Hoboken residents.”
The public budget hearing is set for Wednesday’s council meeting at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 94 Washington St., which will also stream live on YouTube.