Keep in mind that municipal taxes are separate from county taxes which actually did go up and are not under control of the Hoboken Mayor or City Council. Contact your Freeholder Anthony "Stick" Romano and ask him why the County keeps "sticking it" to Hoboken. Keep in mind that 80% of Hoboken's operational budget are salary, wages and benefits so the only way to make substantive tax relief is to cut this area. Mike Russo along with remaining members of the "Council of No" Terry Castellano and Beth Mason opposed the Mayor's layoff plan which gave Dawn Zimmer the leverage to get substantial savings from the police department without losing patrolman. Anyway here is the City of Hoboken's statement.
HOBOKEN MUNICIPAL TAXES DECREASED
BY 5.7% SINCE 2009
BY 5.7% SINCE 2009
Individual Share of Municipal Taxes Decreased by 9.0%
The 2010 Transitional Year budget recently adopted includes a 5% reduction in the municipal tax levy, the largest permitted by law during a transitional year. At the Wednesday, October 20 Council meeting, Councilman Michael Russo incorrectly asserted that taxes had actually gone up rather than down. In fact, while the City’s Municipal tax levy has been decreased by 5% during the Transitional Year, individual Municipal taxes have actually decreased by 6.6% during that time due to an increase in the City’s tax base. Since 2009, the Municipal tax levy has decreased by 5.7%, while individual Municipal taxes have decreased by 9.0%.
Below is an analysis of Municipal taxes since Fiscal Year 2009, the year Municipal taxes were increased by 77% by State Fiscal Monitor Judy Tripodi as a result of many years of fiscal mismanagement. Earlier this week, the City officially received confirmation that it has been released from fiscal monitoring. Click here to view the letter from the Department of Community Affairs.
| Year | Municipal taxes per $100,000 assessed value | Municipal Tax Levy |
Fiscal 2009 | $2,059.75 | $60,442,000 |
Fiscal 2010 | $2,010.01 (2.4% reduction) | $60,025,000 (0.7% reduction) |
Transition 2010 (annualized) | $1,874.80 (6.6% reduction) | $57,024,000 (5% reduction) |
Total reduction since Fiscal 2009 | 9.0% | 5.7% |
As the chart demonstrates, and as confirmed by City Auditor Steve Wielkotz, the Municipal tax levy has been reduced by 5.7%, resulting in a reduction in each taxpayer’s individual share of Municipal taxes of 9.0%.
Councilman Russo may have been confused by the fact that the City is changing from a Fiscal year to a Calendar year. Until that change is complete, calculations based on Calendar years may be misleading due to the fact that taxes are not always collected evenly throughout the year. The change to a Calendar year should minimize any confusion going forward.
Link: http://www.hobokennj.org/news/
