Jersey City has requested a record-breaking $150 million in state aid from Trenton to help plug its quarter-billion-dollar budget deficit as it faces a historic “full-blown financial crisis,” according to city officials.

New Jersey’s second-largest city, with new progressive mayor James Solomon at the helm, is considering steep tax increases and severe cuts to city services as it stares down a crippling $254 million gap — a 28% shortfall in the operating budget.

Solomon and city leaders have been sounding alarms, calling the situation a “full-blown financial crisis” and comparing the massive shortfall to that of cities like Detroit, which became the largest city to file for bankruptcy in 2013, and 1970s New York City.

Jersey City is looking at a $255 million budget shortfall. contentzilla – stock.adobe.com

Jersey City Mayor James Solomon has blamed the shortfall on his predecessor’s administration. AP

To help stop the bleeding — which Solomon has blamed on his predecessor, three-time mayor James Fulop — Jersey City has requested $150 million in assistance from Trenton, which would come through the Department of Community Affairs Transitional Aid program, Gothamist first reported.

“Former Mayor Fulop left Jersey City with a historic $254 million budget deficit – larger than the cost of our police and fire departments combined and thirteen times larger than NYC’s deficit,” City Hall spokesperson Nathaniel Styer told The Post.

“Jersey City’s economy is healthy, and we do not need long-term aid,” Styer insisted. “We want to fix what the former mayor broke without forcing our residents to carry the entire burden through tax increases – residents who experienced a 50% increase in their property taxes over the last five years.

“Jersey City’s economy and housing production is critical to the health of the entire state, and our partnership with the Sherrill Administration will help keep New Jersey prosperous.”

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If the $150 million in aid is granted, it would be the largest award the program has ever provided a New Jersey municipality and more than double the previous record of $69 million the state dished out to Camden in 2010, according to DCA data.

But the city’s huge ask puts New Jersey’s rookie governor, Mikie Sherrill, in a tough spot as the state itself is frantically trying to reckon with its own $3 billion budget deficit. 

Jersey City’s huge ask puts New Jersey’s rookie governor, Mikie Sherrill, in a tough spot as the state itself is frantically trying to reckon with its own $3 billion budget deficit. Aristide Economopoulos

The aid will only be necessary for a few years to get Jersey City back on its feet, and city officials have insisted that the city’s economy is still healthy.

“The promise that we’re making is we can get back to self-sufficiency and fiscal sustainability much sooner than anyone might think if we get the aid we need,” Solomon told Gothamist.

“This isn’t the type of thing where we need their aid for 10 years, as long as we get what we need in years one and possibly two,” he assured.

The aid will only be necessary for a few years to get Jersey City back on its feet, and city officials have insisted that the city’s economy is still healthy. jovannig – stock.adobe.com

An award from the Transitional Aid program would require Jersey City to sign a memorandum of understanding with the state, which includes installing a state fiscal monitor who has the authority to stamp or reject city spending decisions. City Hall

Jersey City’s budget process has been put on hold as it awaits Sherrill’s decision, which could take until May or June. The Post has reached out to the governor’s office for comment.

Moody’s downgraded Jersey City’s credit rating in December for the second time in just three years. The agency said the move “reflects the difficulty the city will have in stabilizing its financial position,” which it described as “increasingly drastic.”

The credit rating agency has since praised Solomon’s administration’s actions to lessen the budget, such as switching healthcare providers, which could save an estimated $30 million per year, bringing in an expert financial director at no cost to the city and burying the Pompidou Museum proposal, which was about to cost the city an additional $40 million.