After requesting a 2 percent increase in the municipal property tax levy to fund its proposed $108.4 million budget for 2015, the administration of Mayor Dawn Zimmer last week proposed a raft of budget amendments designed to result in a flat tax rate for this calendar year.
The budget was introduced March 18 and will have to be passed at a future meeting.
The amendments were approved unanimously by the City Council at its Wednesday, May 6 meeting, with Councilwoman Beth Mason not present for the vote.
When the city’s 2015 budget was first introduced, some council members, including Councilmen Michael Russo and Tim Occhipinti, asked that the city find a way to cancel out its tax increase, either through cuts or drawing down more of its surplus.
In the end, the flat tax rate was achieved through a combination of the two, plus the addition of some unanticipated revenue streams, according to Business Administrator Quentin Wiest.
Where did the extra money come from?
The city will spend an additional $200,000 of its available surplus, bringing the total amount of surplus devoted to the 2015 budget to $9 million.
The amendments cut $75,000 from the appropriation for a redesign of the city website, which Wiest said is overdue given the amount of information the website now holds. “We hope to be able to begin the process,” he said, but “we don’t know that we’ll be able to complete it with the amount of money available.”
Another $250,000 came out of city employees’ group health benefits, made possible by a lowering of the estimate for how much the coverage will cost after new rates were issued in February.
“We like to see three or four months of bills until we get really comfortable with where the numbers are going to come out,” explained Wiest.
“You did hear our mandate that we did not want a raise in the levy.” – Tim Occhipinti
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All of the amendments together allowed city to trim just under $466,000 from its municipal services tax levy, returning it to last year’s mark of $52.38 million, which includes a reserve for uncollected taxes.
Occhipinti commended the administration for making the cuts necessary to achieve a flat tax. “I think that the administration heard what we had to say when we came out for the workshops…you did hear our mandate that we did not want a raise in the levy.”
Another amendment to the proposed 2015 budget added $20,000 for a tenant advocate, though Wiest stressed that the City Council still had to decide what exactly it wanted the advocate to do and pass a resolution in order to actually spend the money. The city had a tenant advocate for many years to help deal with rent control questions and other matters.
Observer Highway delays and other road developments
It may be little comfort to drivers stuck trying to get to work at rush hour in the middle of August, but according to city spokesman Juan Melli, the complete street redesign of Observer Highway that began two weeks ago will almost never result in a full closure of the road.
Instead, traffic may be limited to one lane in each direction, which will allow motorists to experience the future early, because Observer Highway will have just such a configuration when its redesign is complete.
The only exception during which Observer might be closed is when the lacerated lanes of Observer Highway are finally repaved, because it would require time for the asphalt to cool and set. However, Melli said the city and Hudson County, which is managing the project, are looking into conducting milling and repaving at night to lessen its impact on drivers as much as possible.
According to a city press release, work before 9 a.m. and after 4 p.m. on Observer Highway will be limited “to minimize any travel delays during rush hour.”
So far, Observer Highway has yet to feel the full brunt of construction, with most of the work conducted since the project began on April 27 focused on Vezzetti Way, the emergency lane that runs parallel on the south side of Observer Highway.
Drivers who want to avoid Observer Highway construction delays must either use the road before 8 a.m. or after 6 p.m. or choose another path into and out of the city between now and October.
Also this past Wednesday, the City Council took a key step towards applying for a $14 million federal grant to fund the complete redesign of Washington Street based on a concept developed last year. By a unanimous vote, the council approved a $14,000 contract with Kimley Horn to conduct a cost-benefit analysis, as is required by the U.S. Department of Education’s TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) grant program.
While Observer Highway won’t be complete for roughly six months and Washington Street may not see repaving for years, drivers who frequent Hoboken’s moonscaped southwestern streets may see imminent relief. According to Transportation and Parking Director John Morgan, the paving in Package B of Hoboken’s road resurfacing program should be complete by the end of May.
The Package B contract, awarded to Fort Lee-based vendor Reggio Construction last October, covers the milling, paving, and striping of Jackson Street from Newark Street to Fourth Street, Monroe Street from Observer Highway to Third Street and Fourth Street from Jackson Street to Grand Street, along with a smattering of other blocks.
Carlo Davis may be reached at cdavis@hudsonreporter.com.