The latest battle between North Bergen Mayor Nick Sacco and state Senator (D-33)/Union City Mayor Brian Stack revolves around state aid, with the two North Hudson power brokers biting down on their mouth pieces and swinging.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“Union City gets a ridiculous amount of over $300 Million in State Aid and Stack uses it to pay hundreds of employees who are political workers that he sends into other towns like Jersey City,” Sacco said in a statement.
“Every New Jersey taxpayer is financing Stack’s political machine. This isn’t just political patronage, it reeks of outright corruption.”
Sacco continued that the Union City schools will get approximately $241.8 million from the state this year to educate about 11,000 students.
Conversely, Jersey City will receive $133.6 million to serve about 31,000 students, while the North Bergen schools will receive just $70 million dollars to educate about 7,500 students in the coming school year.
“Union City is getting over $100 million more tax dollars than Jersey City and has one third the number of students. Anyone can see that this is wrong. The question is how can this be happening.”
“Kennedy Boulevard is our common border but Union City gets over three times the amount of state aid,” the North Bergen mayor added.
Sacco also noted that Union City was recently awarded $42 million in transition aid from the state for their municipal budget.
“This $42 million is twice as much as they got last year. On a per capita basis this is a scandal when compared to what other towns receive.”
Stack had no problem responding in kind, saying that Sacco should have served his constituents instead of himself when he was in Trenton’s upper chamber.
“Instead of Nick Sacco being the lazy state senator that he was, he should have been advocating for his constituents while I was advocating for my entire district,” he began.
“But he was too busy worrying about who the was attorney general and the criminal justice director, which everyone knows about. Instead of dedicating himself to serving the people, he’s serving himself. This makes it too obvious Nick Sacco’s envy is the root of all his evil evidenced by his attacks upon me and Union City.”
Stack references a mandatory minimum sentencing bill that Sacco had been pushing, which would have been a benefit to one of his eventual son-in-laws, but Gov. Phil Murphy conditionally vetoed the bill in April 2021.
Stack and Sacco have been on opposite political sides for the better part of the last two decades.
Legislative redistricting in early 2022 placed them both in the 33rd Legislative District, but despite the bad blood, there was no epic electoral showdown.
Sacco endorsed Stack in exchange for selecting a state Assembly running mate, who ended up being then-Township Commissioner Julio Marenco.
Given that the civil war between the Hudson County Democratic Organization is ratcheting up, some political insiders feel that has solidified Stack’s choice to replace Marenco.
“Sacco accusing anyone of a political machine is pot vs. kettle. All he did today was cement Larry Wainstein as Stack’s pick for Assembly,” a political insider, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, told HCV.
Wainstein has run against Sacco for mayor three times, and while unsuccessful, he has been the most persistent antagonist for the current administration.
In March, long before he was an official candidate, Stack backed Hudson County Executive Craig Guy to succeed Anthony Vainieri as the HCDO chair, at the time also taking aim at Sacco over the emergence of YouTuber Leroy Truth, whose real name is Leonard Filipowski.
In a letter sent to Union City residents paid for by his Senate campaign at the end of July, Stack blamed Sacco and Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, a Democratic candidate for governor, for being behind Filipowski, leading to a war of wards among the three electeds.
Shortly thereafter, it was revealed that Hudson County Counsel Donato Battista sent a letter to E. Junior Maldonado questioning why Filipowski was part of a Hudson County Municipal Clerks Association meeting held in North Bergen.
On Tuesday, Filipowski denied having any ties to Sacco or Fulop, insisting that Stack simply fabricated this out of thin air.
“Brian Stack has been falsely claiming that me and other mayors and officials are involved with these investigations. The press conference earlier this week proves that is completely false and nothing more than a bunch of outright lies,” Sacco added today.
That’s not to mention the battle for Jersey City mayor next year, where Stack is backing former Gov. Jim McGreevey, which Sacco initially did as well, but sources close to him told HCV in February that he could flip is support to Hudson County Commissioner Bill O’Dea (D-2).
In June, as his term as HCDO chair was winding down, Vainieri attended a fundraiser for O’Dea and gave a de facto endorsement of his former colleague.
Meanwhile, in the gubernatorial primary for governor, Stack has endorsed U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-5), who has not declared his candidacy yet, while Sacco has remained steadfast that he’s sticking with Fulop.
Brian Stack is simple a poor mayor, poor manager, poor administrator, to say the least. Brian Stack can’t mange his budget and simple uses all his funds for settling lawsuits and paying attorneys fees. From 22-23, Brian Stack an and the City of Union City paid one law firm more than $200,000. Guess who the law firm was.
Insiders call it the Scarinci Hollenbeck investment trust
If we work together, there’s enough taxpayer money for us to share the trough with each other and then everyone wins. Let’s pig out together.
Where is attorney general Platkin.
There are only so many dollars to go around and the taxpayers money should not be used to pay the Brian Stack political workers high salaries. Sadly despite billions of dollars through the years, scores have not gone up in the Union City schools. Enough is enough
They both suck.
Stack is the benevolent dictator – his patronage jobs/$ is off the charts crazy. dozens of idtios watering plants and washing sidewalks while it rains.
Sacco is self-serving dinosaur that needs to move on and stop milking the public salaries.
Sacco is right. This is ridiculous. Union City gets more state aid than Jersey City, a city 5 times the population. What the heck is going on around here???
boy if that isnt the pot calling the kettle black. the rumor was that back when sacco had 8 law firms on retainer just in case something happened
the both need to stop freaking intimidating the voters and punishing opposition
if rumor gets out you are opposition people wont even freaking make eye contact with you
the residents are just as at fault cause they are pussies
the residents of both towns need to get off their metaphorical dicks and speak up
“thats just how it is” is no excuse
we got menendez now lets send sacco and stack to prison where they belong