Jersey City Mayor James Solomon will host four community town halls next month to discuss the municipal budget and it’s corresponding tax hike.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
In addition to the upcoming live town halls, the mayor will host an Instagram Live to take questions on the municipal spending plan tonight at 9 p.m.
“I know this tax increase is painful, and residents deserve chance to engage their representatives directly and ask the hard questions,” Solomon said in a statement.
“It is my job to be honest about the problems our city faces, and I know the people of Jersey City will be direct with their questions and concerns. I want to hear what people are worried about, and I want them to hear directly from me about the choices we’re making and why.”
Yesterday, Solomon attended the Jersey City Council caucus to present financial figures explaining why he’s proposing that the governing body approve a 20 percent rate increase on the third quarter tax bills, as HCV first reported.
” … This is 13 times the size of the budget deficit that Mayor [Zohran] Mamdani announced in New York City based on the size of our budgets, right? Obviously, his budget is $125 billion and ultimately he had a $5 billion gap that he had to close,” he said Monday.
“Our budget is around $800 million and we had a $255 million budget gap to close – that’s 28 percent, 29 percent of our operating budget: That is unprecedented … If we were to eliminate basically the entire civilian government of the city, that wouldn’t get us to the $80 million that we need.”
The town halls will be held on the following dates and times, with the locations set to be announced shortly:
• July 7th at 6:30 p.m.
• July 8th at 6:30 p.m.
• July 11th at 11:00 a.m.
• July 16th at 6:30 p.m.