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The Department of Education says that an additional $5-6 million is what the city will need to raise to fund schools. How? Most likely through a tax levy.

Add the $15 million that the city is not contributing to the pension fund and we are at $20-21 million that we know the city would have to raise (taxes) THIS YEAR if it were to fully fund pensions and schools. Dont know much about city finances but those numbers concern me. How would a $20-21 million additional tax levy impact JC residents? What else is being underfunded that we do not know about? Is JC marching in the same direction as Hoboken and will someday be forced to increase taxes by 50% in one single year because it has not met its obligation to manage city finances effectively? If that happens before a citywide reval is done, would the impact of such an increase be fairly distributed?

The following are actual tax records (rounded numbers):

Resident 1: Purchased in 06, 2 family purchased for $530 with assessment of $55K and $3K tax bill.

Resident 2: Purchased in 06, 2 bedroom condo purchased for $580K with assessment of $234K and a $13K tax bill.

A 50% tax increase would mean that Resident 1 pays an additional $1,500 while Resident 2 pays an additional $6,500. For properties that have comparable market values this would be OUTRAGEOUS.

Something wrong here and it should be addressed immediately.

This is just the beginning....

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Start with healy but it should not stop there, the entire council, previous mayors and council members who held office since the last reval...I could go on.

healy inherited some of the mess but he is guilty of making things worse.

Gambled. Time to pay.

"The way we interpreted the statute is that we did not receive the adequacy aid and as a result we are not required to exact any additional levy on the taxpayers".

Mayor Healy



It don't make a whole lotta difference Mayor how WE interpreted the statute. If the state is not giving the money then WE the people are going to have to make up the difference. Chalk up another successful tax hike for our Mayor.

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Shakatah, who's to blame for this then? Healy?, the school board? After reading the article:

"Running for his second full term in May, Healy is fuming.
The way we interpreted the statute is that we did not receive the adequacy aid and as a result we are not required to exact any additional levy on the taxpayers," he said in a statement.

We're all entitled to our opinions especially when it comes to having to shell out even more money now to a City and administration that is having difficulties interpreting statutes, at our expense.

Hey, you left out out Harvey Smith and "shake it up" Dan Levin....

Corzine has nothing to do with "forcing the city to raise taxes". He did not need to tell JC anything because all the city needed to do was to take a look at the formula's components to know what was coming.

The new school aid formula was used to determine school funding for the first time this year and now for the upcoming year. The writing was on the wall as soon as "property wealth" was introduced into the formula and JC should've seen this coming and prepared for it as the formula did not just appear one day, discussions were being held for some time before anything was finalized and although nothing was certain while changes were being discussed, "property wealth" was always on the table.


FYI: I'd really like it if the Manzo, Healy, Fulop (whomever is guilty) hacks refrain from spaming the board with unwanted campaign literature and rhetoric.

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If Mayor Healy has Govenor Corzine's friendship and support, how could he not have known about this in advance? Healy blames the state for a tax increase and now he vows to fight for the cash strapped residents of JC - Yea, and I've got a bridge to sell you. My taxes have already gone up 30+% since Healy took office. Enough is enough with this guy......

If Corzine was such a Healy friend, he would have waited till after the May 12th election for this great news.

Just wait till will get hit with the next "Healy unexpected tax hike" -------- You'll see it right after the election




"Dear Commissioner Doria:

The City of Jersey City has introduced a budget that proposes to eliminate an approximate $15M expenditure for municipal employee contributions obligated by the city.

Jersey City is one of many municipalities under the DCA?s distressed city program ? requiring DCA guidance and approval for financial decisions and strategies.

City officials are quoted in news items regarding the budget introduction as stating they are anticipating that the state legislature will be passing a bill that will provide municipalities with the authority to defer their pension funding obligation for workers.

The city obviously has chosen a strategy that will enable it to send out lower quarterly tax bills in May, based upon the uncertainty of the passage of legislation. If the legislation isn?t passed, Jersey City taxpayers will be slammed hard in the next quarterly tax statements.

Most recently, Jersey City?s neighbor, Hoboken, was penalized by the State DCA for making decisions on state pension related matters without state approval. I, therefore, assume the city has received the permission of the DCA to waive its pension obligation and that taxpayers wont be penalized should the legislation permitting such action does not pass.

I would further note that the city has proposed an ordinance to exceed the state budget cap by 1%. This, also, I assume, is with DCA permission.

The Governor in his recent State of the State address spoke of further cuts to state aid for municipalities. How can the DCA allow for the city?s budget to proceed with a questionable $15M expenditure being written off and a 1% cap increase?

Can the DCA assure city taxpayers that Trenton will issue additional state aid to cover the budget shortfalls or increases being proposed by the city?

Thank you for a prompt response to my concerns.

Respectfully,



Louis M. Manzo
Former State Assemblyman"

State: JC, $10 is needed to pay for your schools. Based on your current property values you should be able to raise $8, we'll pay the remaining $2.

JC: State, $10 is needed to fund my schools. I can raise $5.

State: Your current property values suggest you can raise $8. Your schools need $10. We are paying $2. Raise the rest on your own.

JC: State is forcing me to raise taxes.

And the 800 pound gorilla in the room is the city's ill-conceived tax policy (abatement heavy and many decade+ property valuations).

This is just the beginning...

The charter and abbot schools already suck up enough money from well off towns nearby. Corzine is a jackass is he thinks that tossing more money at schools is going to improve anything. And why is JC tax money being used for a "private Pre-K" provider? That should come out of the parents' pocket.

Jersey City Mayor Healy vows to fight state-imposed school tax hike

by Amy Sara Clark / The Jersey Journal
Tuesday March 17, 2009

Jerramiah T. Healy may have a beef with his friend and supporter Gov. Jon Corzine now that state officials are hiking school taxes in his city.

Trying to keep taxes flat in an election year, Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy vowed tonight to fight a state-imposed 8 percent hike in the local school tax levy.

Healy commented just hours after the Jersey City Board of Education introduced the district's $629.8 million 2009-2010 budget.

The amount of the proposed budget is only slightly higher than the current school year's $627.7 million budget.

But state officials are hiking the amount local taxpayers have to kick in for their schools from $86.1 million to $93.0 million, according to school officials.

Earlier this month, both school and city officials seemed certain there would be no change to the school tax levy.

But school officials said they were blind-sided by a March 11 letter from the state that gave the board less than a week to incorporate the changes before the March 18 deadline to submit the proposed budget to the state. April 2 is the deadline for the final school budget.

"For the state to tell you on March 11 that you have to raise taxes and you have to have a budget by April 2, that puts us between a rock and a hard place," Board member Peter J. Donnelly said.

Board members Frances O. Thompson and Gerald McCann said the mandated increase seemed arbitrary.

"There's no logic to the number they picked," McCann said.

State Department of Education officials couldn't be reached to comment.

Running for his second full term in May, Healy is fuming.

"The way we interpreted the statute is that we did not receive the adequacy aid and as a result we are not required to exact any additional levy on the taxpayers," he said in a statement.

The budget was introduced at a special meeting by a vote of 6-1.

Board member Anthony R. Cucci voted no, while board members Edward Cheatam and L. Terry Dehere were absent.

The budget includes a contractually mandated increase of 1.7 percent in salaries and benefits and minor increases in fixed operational costs, charter schools and the Pre-K private provider.

It also includes a 17.5 percent cut in the budget for instructional materials and services, and minor cuts in nearly every other area.

The board will hold a public meeting on the budget before the April 2 deadline.