JERSEY CITY — At Wednesday’s special City Council meeting in Jersey City, the council approved, by a 5-3 vote, the city’s $509.8 million budget only two months before the June 30 end date for the 2010 fiscal year.
The approved budget, which is $34 million higher than the final budget from the 2009 fiscal year — has a $185 million tax levy as opposed to the $190 million levy for the introduced budget earlier this year, which will allow for a slight decrease in taxes for this year’s second quarter. However, taxes were raised 24 percent by the council in January for the first quarter of the year to help balance the budget. So overall, annual taxes are still higher than last year.
The budget was the source of much unhappiness and dissention within City Hall as municipal employees were subject to layoffs and/or furloughs in order to make up for the budget shortfall estimated at a conservative $42 million.
Voting against the budget were councilpersons Nidia Lopez, David Donnelly and Steven Fulop. Voting for the budget were council members Michael Sottolano, Peter Brennan, Bill Gaughan, Willie Flood and Mariano Vega.
Read more about the meeting and budget in this weekend’s Jersey City Reporter. – RK