STATEMENT FROM DAWN ZIMMER ON THE BUDGET VOTE
"Last night the City Council passed the 2009 budget. I abstained because the Council was not provided with the operational audits necessary to make significant cuts to the budget, there is no commitment from the Administration to seriously reduce personnel costs as we begin labor union negotiations, and the certified audit that the budget was based on was not provided to the Council.
While I appreciate that the budget was honest, and not filled with budget gimmicks such as borrowing against the sale of the municipal garage to cover operating expenses, or abusive PILOT payments, it failed to make the cuts necessary to reduce the tax burden for Hoboken residents.
Eighty percent of the operating budget includes personnel costs, including salary levels, staffing levels, and health care benefits. If we don’t address these costs, then we are simply not making the cuts necessary to lower taxes. For the last five months Ms. Tripodi has had officials from the State come and conduct an operational analysis of each Department, including the Police and Fire departments.
These operational audits, which I was long ago told revealed significant issues, were supposed to provide the Council with the information that it needed to propose significant and responsible cuts. Even after I submitted an OPRA request, the information was not provided to the Council.
Going forward, we absolutely need this information so that we can makes cuts that reduce Hoboken's crushing tax burden and ensure that essential services are maintained."
My Comment: Listening to the comments from Beth Mason , Peter Cunningham and Dawn Zimmer for their reasons for not voting yes on the 2009 amended budget is that basically not enough information has been provided to the council to make an informed decision. On this point I completely agree with all three of these council members.
I do trust that Judy Tripodi has and her staff has represented the current cost of running Hoboken's government is the most honest way possible. However, the audits of fire and police as well as the City employees needs to be done and reported out so that the Council members and the public can begin the debate about what level of services we need as well as what we are willing to pay to get those services. Additionally, the audits would be very helpful in upcoming union negotiations since some audit findings could find areas where staff could either be reduced or redeployed elsewhere. I am no fan of layoffs but where Hoboken is today, it is clear to me the City is spending too much on salaries and benefits for the level of service we are getting. I defer to the experts as to where.
Despite my agreement with Dawn Zimmer, Beth Mason and Peter Cunningham on the reasons why they did not vote yes on the budget I am glad it passed since the 2009 year is already almost over. Not too much could have been to curtail the burden on the tax payer since most of the money again has already been spent. Let us demand that we get these audits completed soon and start work immediately to figure out where we are with 2010. Judy Tripodi and her staff through hard work have brought us to stage 1 which is what it costs to run Hoboken the way it is in terms of costs and proper revenue projections. I take that on faith. Stage 2 is to figure out what Hoboken should be spending on to run its city operations and capital projects. The audits being completed and released are the key to the next phase.
It is important to note that while I aggree with Peter Cammarano on this yes vote, I still disagree with his vote against bringing in an outside firm last year like the one Beth Mason had suggested. A whole year has gone by and we still don't have an objective outside independent audit of our city's operations. Truly a wasted opportunity. ◦
