Read Jersey City’s Calendar Year 2012 Municipal Budget, As Introduced

By • Feb 23rd, 2012 • Category: Blog, News, Politics

When Mayor Jerramiah Healy presented his 2012 Calendar Year Municipal Budget Mayor to the Council at Tuesday night’s caucus meeting, some Council members, or anyway, Ward E Councilman Steve Fulop, was prepared with questions about what was and what wasn’t included in the budget. These concerns ranged from money for additional police, consolidation of the Jersey City Incinerator Authority and Department of Public Works, and the status of the Preventive Medicine clinic, to name a few. It was the beginning of a process for a budget that Business Administrator Jack Kelly called both “conservative” and a “living document,” and will continue to undergo scrutiny from the Council. But shouldn’t you, the public, have a crack at it? JCI has uploaded the line item of the budget in its entirety, which can be read here.

Along with the actual budget, the city compiled statistics about crime, construction, and unemployment as well as charts showing appropriations and revenues. The charts can be found below and can be seen in their full size by clicking on the image:

First up are the appropriations which consists of employees’ salaries, helath care costs, pensions, operating costs for offices and programs, debt service, grant programs and funding for autonomous agencies. On the plus side, costs of civilian/non-uniform personnel is down more than $1 million this year compared to last year. After all, in 2011, as readers might recall, the city laid off 100 employees to reign in expenses. That being said, the combined cost for the Police and Fire departments is up more than $5 million compared to last year. This cost hike is the result of a one-year concession of deferred payroll that the mayor negotiated last year with the police department to save $3.5 million. These departments comprise 47% of the total budget, excluding grants, when salary, health care, pension, and operating costs are considered.

The city has also seen an increase in repayment of “special emergency notes” that have increased as a result of the “unexpected large number of retirees.” These, according to a statement that comes along with budget, largely result from both the Police and Fire departments. According to the statement, the city issued the sale of 5-year notes to avoid raising property taxes.

Autonomous agencies have also stabilized expenses at the direction of the city with the exception of the Jersey City Incinerator Authority, which required more money to collect waste and recycling removal. Some of the expense for trash collection they’ve passed onto the Board of Education.

The city’s revenues, meanwhile, are spread out over a number of different sources including the city’s surplus, fees and licenses, state aid, payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTs), State and Federal grants, property taxes, and from miscellaneous sources such as property sales.

These are the charts included in the budget that compare Jersey City favorably to other New Jersey cities:

The following two carts demonstrate that crime is lower in Jersey City than other New Jersey cities. Crime remains a concern in Jersey City, however, and the city has said they will improve communication with residents and to continue to combat the problem. At Wednesday night’s meeting, At-Large Councilman Rolando Lavarro said that after crunching the comstat numbers posted on the Police Department’s website, he found that while crime was down overall citywide, it was up in two districts.

Lavarro also proposed creating a citizens’ advisory committee to the budget, the composition of which is still be determined. More details as they’re made available.

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is a staff writer for the Jersey City Independent.
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  • Joe__C

    “The city has also seen an increase in repayment of “special emergency notes” that have increased as a result of the ‘unexpected large number of retirees.’ These, according to a statement that comes along with budget, largely result from both the Police and Fire departments. According to the statement, the city issued the sale of 5-year notes to avoid raising property taxes.”

    Matt, i think you skip over this point too quickly.  Yes, the reason for the significant increse in spending attributable to what the city calls “special emergency notes” is the higher number of retirments, but more importantly, it’s because when each of these retirements occurs the city is obligated to pay out a lump sum to cover the retirees’ accumulated vacation days, and as the city’s budget document states, these payouts average in the “six figures.”  See full excerpt from the budget document below.

    “While our debt service costs have stabilized, our costs for repayment of ‘special emergency notes’ have increased in part due to the unexpected large number of retirees and their payouts of accumulated time.  Most of the retirements have come from both the Police and Fire Departments with average payouts in excess of six figures.  The budget could not support these payments without increasing property taxes.  Instead, the administration issued the sale of 5-year notes in an amount similar to the prior year’s budget appopriation.” (Mayor’s CY2012 Introduced Budget, pg. 17)

    So while it may be true that the bonds were issued to avoid raising property taxes, taxpayers remain on the hook for the debt service on these bonds and will bear the full cost of the same, even if not in the current budget year.  But why would we issue “special emergency notes” to fund what is arguably an operating cost?  shouldn’t the city expect retirements each year and that they should have to fund them?  by following this practice of issuing debt to fund these payouts, the city pays twice–once for the payout itself and then again with the debt service on the bonds to fund the payouts.

    What this all means is that not only do the fire and police departments enjoy generous wage and benefits, generous pensions that are largely untaxed in the state of new jersey and full health coverage with only neglible contributions required of the beneficiaries, but retirees of the police and fire department also receive on their retirements lump sum payouts for the amount of their accumulated vacation time, and as the budget document states, these payouts average over $100,000. 

    This is an appaling practice that perpetuates a fraud on the taxpayer.  The taxpayer is coerced to cough up the money to pay for the salaries of the police and fire departments, to pay for the generous pensions and healthcare benefits of the same, and then to cough up still more money to pay for these lump sum payouts at retirement.  this practice must end.  it nowhere exists in the private sector.  it leads to crowding out other parts of the buget and the city’s priorities.  and it leads to fee and other non-tax revenue raising schemes–e.g., the ostensible safety promoting red light cameras that have already contributed more than $15mm to the city’s coffers.  and if members of the police and fire department are somehow not able to use their vacation time during the year, this is a reflection management’s inability to staff and manage personnel properly, in which case management needs to be changed, or it is because the collective bargaining agreements the city has entered into with the police and fire unions have so bound the city’s hands that it is not able to staff the departments without creating enormous accumulated vacation time for the unions’ members, in which case the agreements must be renegotiated.