Dear Editor:
Born free and taxed to death. The Jersey City Council recently approved a budget increasing our taxes for the second consecutive year and has done so during the most difficult economic times since the Great Depression. A 40 percent hike in property taxes is more than a kick to the stomach. For many, it’s the kick that will send them to the curb, literally, with a tax lien notice in hand.
When so many residents are currently unemployed, it is astonishing to see the city’s budget include an increase for payroll. Such swelling of salaries includes non-critical services like: the Mayor’s Action Bureau, Department of Recreation’s Director Office, Communications, and Commerce departments, to name a few.
There are city employees whom continue to bank-roll unused vacation time amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars. The total budget damage for “accumulated absences” is: $7,000,000 and that figure increases each year.
For those fortunate to remain employed and work for private industry, they have been asked to do more with less. For too long public employees have been coddled and spoiled with gold-plated retirement and health plans and generous perks like city vehicles. Some public servants, unabashedly, collect multiple paychecks, paid with your tax dollars. It’s now time they share our pain.
A good place to start is to reintroduce Councilman Steven Fulop’s referendum prohibiting government employees from collecting more than one taxpayer funded salary. The City Council must pass this ordinance, now, or surely they will find themselves kicked to the curb of City Hall, post election.
Peter O’Reilly