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Re: Property Taxes will increase as Jersey City introduces $507 Million budget
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Home away from home
 
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From Hudson Democracy
Very interesting to see Brennan taking a shot at Healy. Clear sign the administration's ship is taking on water: the rats are beginning to jump overboard. Friday, March 26, 2010 Brennan Sees April 21 Budget Vote City Council President Peter Brennan told me after Wednesday's meeting that he thinks the municipal budget will be ready for a final vote on April 21. Brennan is the chairman of the council's budget committee. The final budget ordinance, Brennan said, will have a tax levy of just under $185 million. The budget proposed by Mayor Healy in January, added to the agenda of a regular City Council meeting minutes before the meeting began and without public notice, included a tax levy too large for state law. Healy's budget proposed a tax levy of $195.2 million; under state law, the tax levy could be increased this year only to just about $185.1 million, up from $151.2 million last year. Brennan said the budget committee succeeded where Mayor Healy apparently failed, and was able to trim the budget enough so the tax levy was at least under the state cap. It's still a tax increase of $34 million, and it's going to fall very hard on this city. The City Council voted to introduce the mayor's budget the same evening he proposed it, and they voted apparently without reading it. Only Downtown Councilman Steven Fulop voted against it. The city's budget process is a farce, it has been for years, and it's the mayor's fault. Mayor Healy doesn't work with the public on the budget, the process is opaque, and the budget is always inexcusably late. Year after year, the administration's excuse is that it can't determine how much municipal aid it will be getting from Trenton. This excuse has always been dubious. The state has to have a budget in place on day one of the fiscal year, meaning July 1. The state budget should give city officials at least a baseline for how much aid they can expect to receive. For fiscal year 2011, the excuse is void. Governor Christie has made municipal aid a target of large cuts in next year's budget, and Jersey City knows what he is proposing: $63.8 million in municipal aid for our city, 17.5 percent less than this year. We might get more, but we won't get less?so let's get to work on a budget. Because the way it is now is an insult to taxpayers. By the time the City Council votes on the budget, most of the money it accounts has already been spent under "emergency appropriations" ordinances the council regularly approves to fund city operations in place of a proper, transparent budget. As of March, the city has already spent about $450 million in fiscal year 2010; the mayor's fiscal year 2010 budget proposes to spend only about $500 million. In other words, the city government's budget deliberations involve only about ten percent of year's spending. The rest of the money has been spent. D.C.
Posted on: 2010/3/26 16:51
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Re: Property Taxes will increase as Jersey City introduces $507 Million budget
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Just can't stay away
 
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Interesting comments from Healy about a property tax increase just not being in the cards, from last Spring:
Levin says that by plugging budgets with one-shot infusions from PILOTs (Payments in Lieu of Taxes on tax abated properties), legal settlements, property sales, and, this year, the pension payment deferral, ?we?re just pushing off a property tax increase for the future.? However, Healy says a property tax increase simply isn?t in the cards. He says his administration has ?restrained spending while seeking new sources of reoccuring revenue,? specifically a parking lot tax and a hotel tax, which together bring in close to $10 million per year. Going forward, he says, he ?will do everything possible to keep taxes stable.? But Levin stresses the need to form a budget and a long-term financial plan that forces the city to live within its means. He says much of that can be done by cutting expenses citywide. ?We need to control our municipal spending,? Levin says. ?There?s no other alternative.? He points to a number of areas for the city to save money, from cutting back on the automotive fleet provided to city employees, to reducing staffing levels to outsourcing services that could be better provided by other entities. sources: http://www.jerseycityindependent.com/ ... opment-taxes-and-budgets/ http://www.jerseycityindependent.com/ ... udgets-at-downtown-forum/
Posted on: 2010/2/2 22:54
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Re: Property taxes likely to go up again.... a lot!
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Home away from home
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I am glad other people are now reading the budget. Many times I am the only "Public" to speak at a budget hearing. You must attend the hearing. Yes, police, firefighter, and pensions make up a large part of the budget. But also important is the bonding. The budget is a problem because of the games previous mayors play. Only interest is paid while they are in office, once they leave, then principal kicks in.
Posted on: 2010/2/2 22:30
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Re: Property taxes likely to go up again.... a lot!
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Home away from home
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From my understanding with regards to the Fire Department, there is a Captain for every two fireman. Why can't a Captain have more fireman under him. Do we need that many Captains?
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Posted on: 2010/2/2 22:21
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Re: Property Taxes will increase as Jersey City introduces $507 Million budget
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Home away from home
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HOLY COW BATMAN....
This budget is making for some interesting reading. I'm on page 37 of the PDF looking at salaries. They are UP over 2008. City Clerk for example. in FY2009, Salaries = $857,200. Now, its $889,600. That's $32,400 increase. Who got hired during the hiring FREEZE? And WTF. Where are the promised cuts. 10% cuts across the board. NOT SEEING IT IN THE BUDGET. Administrators office is up. Architecture is up. Mayor's Action Bureau is up. (This BUREAU should be eliminated.) Municipal court is up too... yet crime is down? less crime less courts? Nope. A couple ones are down. Like in Purchasing. (keep cutting here please - no more purchases for Jersey City). Also, noticed that revenues from offices are flat. Which is curious. And other revenues such as fees are flat or down too. Time to up fees and such to offices and developers. Also, big revenue line items from grants and such are blank. What, no homeland security funding this year? Haven't even gotten to expenses yet. That should be fun. But thought I would chime in. FG
Posted on: 2010/2/2 21:28
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Re: Property taxes likely to go up again.... a lot!
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Home away from home
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Yes, when you go into the details the pension, health and retirement benefits are generous, this affects many towns across the country. This was one of the reasons Hoboken's taxes went up so much 2 years ago creating a taxpayer revolt.
Posted on: 2010/2/2 21:22
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Re: Property taxes likely to go up again.... a lot!
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Home away from home
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Posted on: 2010/2/2 20:36
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Re: Property taxes likely to go up again.... a lot!
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Home away from home
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Posted on: 2010/2/2 20:04
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Re: Property taxes likely to go up again.... a lot!
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Home away from home
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Wow. Am I correct in reading that literally 2/3 of the city budget is spent on fire, police and health insurance???
Posted on: 2010/2/2 19:53
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Re: Property taxes likely to go up again.... a lot!
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Quite a regular
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City Budget and Audit documents can be found here -
http://www.cityofjerseycity.com/pub-info.aspx?id=2430
Posted on: 2010/2/2 14:36
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Re: Property taxes likely to go up again.... a lot!
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Home away from home
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The basic answer is Healy really does not care what the JC Residents have to say, therefore you cannot expect that he address the issue.
As much as there was a very good turn out at Wednesday's City Council meeting and the residents showing much anger and passion, if you watched their body language you could see they were trying to ignore the people, the suggestions made and most likely things fell on deaf ears and Healy and his council will try to continue to ignore the Jersey City Residents. The Mayor and his Team are incompetent and a dysfunctional group. It seems they can't even be shamed, humiliated or embarrassed into doing the right thing for the Jersey City Residents. But please don't give up, let's keep fighting them! Quote:
Posted on: 2010/2/1 20:57
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Re: Property taxes likely to go up again.... a lot!
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Home away from home
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I have a basic question. In most cities, if a council meeting took place like the one we had last Wednesday, would the mayor say something to the public? Is it strange that Healy does not address the issue?
Posted on: 2010/2/1 16:43
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Re: Property taxes likely to go up again.... a lot!
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Home away from home
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Unfortunately the most powerful message is sent by not living in new construction downtown. Or new construction anywhere in JC. These condos are the most taxed. There's a great response in the 30 year crime low thread about how the horrid taxes downtown are causing people to shift to other areas of jersey city. these people wind up being very proactive about keeping their blocks safe, be it thru neighborhood associations or vigilant calls to the police. This will, in time, make other areas of JC nice. So, even if in the immediate future you cannot vote out the politician who will raise you taxes out office now, you can kick 'em in the ass by shifting locale.
Posted on: 2010/2/1 4:29
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Re: Property taxes likely to go up again.... a lot!
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Home away from home
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I just don't understand how this is supposed to do anything. The people voted in incompetent individuals who only ran to make extra money off the city both legally and illegally. These council members (save Fulop) have no idea what they are doing. Don't some of them sleep through meetings? Even if they wanted to do something, they would have no idea where to start and no idea how to follow through. And where is Healy through all of this? Getting wasted at the local bar?
Posted on: 2010/2/1 4:25
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Re: Property taxes likely to go up again.... a lot!
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Home away from home
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Posted on: 2010/2/1 0:54
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Re: Property Taxes will increase as Jersey City introduces $507 Million budget
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Home away from home
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As I wrote on another tread, there were tons of people, the video doesn't capture the crowd. Coming to the next meetings is CRUCIAL to be heard and also because this Jan 27 was just a temporary appropriation, the tax budget will be voted in stone end of Feb. See Jan 27 tread for more information.
PLEASE REMEMBER TO ATTEND THE NEXT TWO MEETINGS AND TO SPEAK BEFORE THEY VOTE !
Posted on: 2010/1/29 1:26
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Re: Property Taxes will increase as Jersey City introduces $507 Million budget
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Webmaster
 
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Posted on: 2010/1/28 16:10
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Re: Property Taxes will increase as Jersey City introduces $507 Million budget
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Home away from home
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Posted on: 2010/1/27 21:15
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Re: Property Taxes will increase as Jersey City introduces $507 Million budget
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Home away from home
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Posted on: 2010/1/27 21:11
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Re: Property Taxes will increase as Jersey City introduces $507 Million budget
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Just can't stay away
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Don't know why the omniscient Webmaster deleted this post from a little while ago, but here goes again.......
Just curious --- is anyone withholding any part of their February 1 property tax payment? Paying absolutely nothing would be shortsighted since you?ll end up screwing yourself, despite the righteous public indignation. I?m absolutely making my tax payment, but I?m considering holding back just the amount of the increase. I don?t know ---- still thinking about it.
Posted on: 2010/1/27 20:55
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Re: Property Taxes will increase as Jersey City introduces $507 Million budget
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Home away from home
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I have been serving as a translator of sorts for my gf who's job is to do revals (appraise an entire town) and I think support the commissioner when home owners appeal their revaluation/assessment. I need her to get a UN and PW here as I am not the expert, she is. I learned a lot from her and posted it here to try to help people who seemed to be going astray and could have lost their appeal. Basically i dont want to potentially post something incorrect, especially if people are making big decisions like this.
My understanding per the post i referenced is that the assessed price starts as the fair market price when a reval is done (done a long time ago for JC). As the real estate values change a ratio is calculated by the tax assessor that basically converts the current fair market values to the old scale so they all jive with when the assessment was last done, at least that is what i understood from her. This ratio is calculated once a year and published online. Sales may or may not be the fair market value, and if you are following me unless a reval is done the assessed value is not the fair market value (right now it is a fraction of that). My condo was actually marked as not usable for a comp by the tax assessor, maybe because i got pre-construction pricing? I dont know, but my sales price is not my fair market value and it is also not the assessed value. Both of these can be computed and may even be available online if there is a previous owner. I hope i didnt misstate any of that and as i mentioned i am going to back out of providing any more technical direction here. Good luck
Posted on: 2010/1/27 18:46
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Re: Property Taxes will increase as Jersey City introduces $507 Million budget
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Newbie
 
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Project in question is Crescent Court and I don't believe they are part of a Pilot program. Sales agent told me purchase price or deed price would be assessed value since tax assessor has nothing else to go buy and he said the taxes would be calculated at 1.6% of the purchase price. I've heard folks say the increase would be 30% which would take the 1.6 to 2.08 but this does not compute for me to a $800 per $100000 "assessed" value increase. Sorry not trying to be difficult...just want to have my facts before making such a large purchase/living decision.
Posted on: 2010/1/27 18:11
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Re: Property Taxes will increase as Jersey City introduces $507 Million budget
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Home away from home
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Quote:
If it is not subject to a PILOT it is going to be subject to any tax increase. Sale price is not the assessed price...see my post here explaining (start at the 3rd para): http://jclist.com/modules/newbb/viewt ... id=231210#forumpost231210
Posted on: 2010/1/27 17:49
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Re: Property Taxes will increase as Jersey City introduces $507 Million budget
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Quite a regular
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I can tell you personally that the despicable treatment of new residents in JC and Hoboken by local governments prevents me from buying here. When you buy a home, you are making an implicit vote of confidence in the state and local governments where the home resides. I will likely forever be a renter as long as I'm in NJ due to the horrible state of affairs. The state and city of JC can hardly stay afloat. Why would I invest in that?
Posted on: 2010/1/27 17:45
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Re: Property Taxes will increase as Jersey City introduces $507 Million budget
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Newbie
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Any thoughts on how this impacts people looking to buy into downtown JC? Are the taxes being advertised for new properties going to go up the same way i.e. $800 for every $100000 assessed? For new homes, sales agent told me sale price is assessed price, can any one confirm?
Posted on: 2010/1/27 16:48
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Re: Property Taxes will increase as Jersey City introduces $507 Million budget
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Home away from home
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To know for sure how to select comparables and defend your selections in tax court it would help to have an expert trained in this field. It cant be explained via an internet forum, this is why they have degrees, tests, and 3 levels of appraisal licences in NJ.
Posted on: 2010/1/27 14:48
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Re: Property Taxes will increase as Jersey City introduces $507 Million budget
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Home away from home
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This is helpful but it doesn't tell how to select the comparable property to be sure that it will be valid. I guess it forces you to always look for better properties in better locations to be sure, not the best scenario.
Also, not accepting distressed sales in the equation is ludicrous since we all know that it affects other sales. I guess one can not select a foreclosure following these comments.
Posted on: 2010/1/27 3:32
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Re: Property Taxes will increase as Jersey City introduces $507 Million budget
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Home away from home
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Quote:
Look at the post below, it is a couple above yours, it is long but explains the process and what you need. You dont need a lawyer unless they are also an appraiser. http://jclist.com/modules/newbb/viewt ... id=231210#forumpost231210
Posted on: 2010/1/26 21:24
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Re: Property Taxes will increase as Jersey City introduces $507 Million budget
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Home away from home
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Matule Robert C
70 Hudson Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030 (201) 659-0403 he is an attorney who has done tax appeals (successfully, i might add)
Posted on: 2010/1/26 19:59
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Re: Property Taxes will increase as Jersey City introduces $507 Million budget
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Newbie
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Is there a lawyer or an appraiser that anyone knows of that has gone through this process. I would be interested in hiring someone if I knew they had more knowledge.
I was originally valuated at 49% of sale price, then after going to town hall they 'corrected it' down to 42% when it should have been 35%. Everyone needs to know about this practice, only in numbers and support will any of us get treated honestly.
Posted on: 2010/1/26 19:30
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