The Jersey City Independent "

Photos: Steve Gold

At last night’s mayoral forum hosted by the Downtown Coalition of Neighborhood Associations and Civic JC, all five candidates discussed their plans for development, ethics, fiscal management, crime and transportation in front of about 150 people.

School Funding

Manzo wove tax abatements into his criticism of the new school funding formula imposed by the state that resulted in the loss of aid for Jersey City. The new formula is based on per capita income.

“[People living in abated properties] push up the per capita income of the city, which cuts us in state aid,” Manzo said. “Yet they contribute nothing to the school district.” The city does not share the Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILOTs) that come from abated properties with the school district or the county.

Manzo said he thought the funding formula was “unconstitutional,” and that he’d fight it in court.

Harvey Smith also said he’d fight the new funding formula. “Jersey City has to fight to make sure school funding is consistent,” he said, while trimming fat in the budget.

But Mayor Jerramiah Healy said he had already fought for the city’s interest in this area. “No one fought harder than I did to fight the governor’s plan,” he said, adding that “there’s going to have to be cuts” in the school budget if there are more cuts in state aid.

Dan Levin agreed. “We’re not going to get more money from the state; our schools are not going to cost any less,” he said. What Jersey City needs to do, Levin said, is to devise a long-term financial master plan and start furloughing appointed city employees (not civil servants) and cutting expenses to brace our budget for the possibility of an extended downturn.

“We need to cut, we need to cut, we need to cut,” he emphasized, “in order to have the necessary resources to educate our children.”

Property Tax Revaluation?

Tax abatements also figured into the candidates’ discussion of a possible property tax revaluation (it’s been about 20 years since the last), and whether or not that would create a massive property tax hike like ones recently seen in Hoboken and West New York.

Healy said the revaluation is “probably going to occur in the next handful of years, but that “if it’s done properly … [it] shouldn’t affect taxes all that much.”

The other candidates didn’t agree.

“I’m not looking forward to the reval,” Smith said, adding that the city needed to look at the budget carefully and possibly apply to the state for a hardship provision to help cushion the blow.

Webb reprised an idea he’s floated at earlier debates — doing an efficiency audit for each city agency and department to help control costs.

“The revaluation … is going to be very destructive and destabilizing,” Levin said. He said that the revaluations are unfair because they are done so infrequently, and argued that by reducing the city budget now, a large tax increase might be avoided.  “[But] if we don’t plan, our city is going to suffer.”

Manzo suggested a specific plan on how to handle the problem. He proposed using a tax anticipation note to monetize right now revenue that the city will receive when tax abatements at particular properties expire. He claimed that would inject between $80 million and $100 million into the municipal budget annually.

Eliminating ‘Cronyism and Nepotism’

The candidates were asked about the city’s pay-to-play legislation, and more generally, what they would do to make a more open and accountable city government.

“The system needs fixing,” Manzo said. He talked about how difficult it is in Jersey City to be a grassroots candidate — which he admitted he isn’t — when the incumbent has millions of dollars to spend on a campaign.

Manzo advocated for closing loopholes in the current pay-to-play law, specifically saying that there should be a provision for developers and that the law should include private foundations and similar organizations that politicians use to funnel money. Later, he said that developers should not be allowed to contribute any money to political campaigns in the city.

Both Healy and Smith said there were already statewide provisions in place that track spending and that regulate how much developers can contribute to campaigns ($2,600). Both Levin and Webb said they’d restrict developer contributions to $300 per candidate.

Webb said that nepotism and cronyism is too entrenched in Jersey City goverment. He said many employees “do the least amount of work possible, because they know that the rewards always go to those who are politically connected.” He said he’d promote strictly based on merit. “As long as you do a good job,” Webb said, “you’ll never have to worry about me.”

Levin hit many of the same notes as Manzo, but also addressed the citizens in the crowd. He said the city needed to implement a more open process to encourage ordinary residents, rather than politically-connected folks, to serve on the various boards that handle city business.

Crime

Asked what they’d do to help control the crime problem, the challengers all pointed to similar ideas: community-based policing, cops walking the beat, recreational options for youth and a more diverse economic development plan to create jobs.

“Poverty and crime do go hand in hand,” Webb said, noting that Jersey City in its current state was “a tale of two cities” — the prosperous waterfront and the rest of the city.

Manzo said he’d take a 100-percent enforcement/zero tolerance approach to all crimes in the city, to “let the hoods know they don’t own the streets.”

Meanwhile, Smith disputed Healy’s claims in his advertising about crime. “We all know that crime isn’t down, as the mayor’s commercial says,” he said, before reciting the 2007 and 2008 murder, rape and robbery numbers from CompStat.

Healy, saying he “certainly dispute[d] Harvey’s statistics,” leaned on his record. He focused on his administration’s accomplishments: hiring more cops, creating an anti-gang unit, instituting a gun buyback program, and using programs like the Police Activity League to reach young people.

Economic Development

“We need a comprehensive economic development plan to bring jobs to the people who need jobs,” Levin said, adding that the condo and hotel development the current administration has focused on provides only low-paying service-sector employment, not career-oriented working-class jobs.

Manzo agreed, saying that it was no coincidence that the city’s high-crime areas were plagued by double-digit unemployment. He said that licensing tax abatements will enable the city to enforce employment and training provisions written into the abatements that he claims developers are skipping out on under this administration.

But Healy said that economic development has been distributed throughout the city. “The rising tide has lifted all the boats,” he said.

Transit

In response to a transit question, another couple of interesting ideas were floated.

Manzo said the city should lobby the Port Authority to create an express PATH train that begins downtown (we’d assume at Grove Street) so commuters aren’t greeted by a procession of already-filled trains during the morning rush.

Healy said he’d work to expand light rail so commuters to Jersey City “leave their cars outside of Jersey City.”

Webb said he’d “consider a commuter tax” for folks working in the city but not living here, or folks who drive to our transit hubs and then use them to go to New York.

Levin said Jersey City residents need to have mass transit access to jobs in the entire region, not just in New York City, citing the light rail extension into Bergen County as an essential project. He also said that the city needs to cut back on cars and subsidized parking spaces for city workers. “It’s about leading by example,” Levin said.

Leftovers

* In response to a question on balancing development needs with historic preservation, a few interesting policy ideas were thrown out there. Levin, Manzo and Smith all talked about ways to give the Historic Preservation Commission more authority in the development process. Manzo suggested that all redevelopment should pass through that office in addition to planning, zoning and the other existing offices; Smith said that someone from the commission should sit on the Planning Board.

* All the challengers said they didn’t support the city’s decision to defer half of its payments into the state pension fund this year. By doing so, the city saved $14.8 million this year and was able to balance the budget without layoffs or service cutbacks. The city will have to begin repaying the money in 2012, over a 15-year period. Healy, who lobbied heavily for the state legislation allowing cities to make this move, said the “absolutely” supported it.

Like what you've read here? Please consider making a donation or becoming a sustaining member. As a grassroots news organization, we rely on community support -- as well as paid advertising -- to survive.