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 \u201cfull-blown financial crisis,\u201d according to city officials.<\/p>\n
New Jersey\u2019s second-largest city, with new progressive mayor James Solomon<\/a> at the helm, is considering steep tax increases and severe cuts to city services as it stares down a crippling $254 million gap \u2014 a 28% shortfall in the operating budget.<\/p>\n Solomon<\/a> and city leaders have been sounding alarms, calling the situation a \u201cfull-blown financial crisis\u201d 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.<\/p>\n Jersey City is looking at a $255 million budget shortfall. contentzilla \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n Jersey City Mayor James Solomon has blamed the shortfall on his predecessor\u2019s administration. AP<\/p>\n To help stop the bleeding \u2014 which Solomon has blamed on his predecessor, three-time mayor James Fulop \u2014 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cFormer Mayor Fulop left Jersey City with a historic $254 million budget deficit \u2013 larger than the cost of our police and fire departments combined and thirteen times larger than NYC\u2019s deficit,\u201d City Hall spokesperson Nathaniel Styer told The Post.<\/p>\n \u201cJersey City\u2019s economy is healthy, and we do not need long-term aid,\u201d Styer insisted. \u201cWe want to fix what the former mayor broke without forcing our residents to carry the entire burden through tax increases \u2013 residents who experienced a 50% increase in their property taxes over the last five years. <\/p>\n \u201cJersey City\u2019s economy and housing<\/a> production is critical to the health of the entire state, and our partnership with the Sherrill Administration will help keep New Jersey prosperous.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart your day with all you need to know\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMorning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n But the city\u2019s huge ask puts New Jersey\u2019s rookie governor, Mikie Sherrill<\/a>, in a tough spot as the state itself is frantically trying to reckon with its own $3 billion budget deficit.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jersey City\u2019s huge ask puts New Jersey\u2019s 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<\/p>\n 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\u2019s economy is still healthy.<\/p>\n \u201cThe promise that we\u2019re 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,\u201d Solomon told Gothamist.<\/p>\n \u201cThis isn\u2019t 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,\u201d he assured.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s economy is still healthy. jovannig \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n 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 <\/p>\n Jersey City\u2019s budget process has been put on hold as it awaits Sherrill\u2019s decision, which could take until May or June. The Post has reached out to the governor\u2019s office for comment.<\/p>\n Moody\u2019s downgraded Jersey City\u2019s credit rating in December<\/a> for the second time in just three years. The agency said the move \u201creflects the difficulty the city will have in stabilizing its financial position,\u201d which it described as \u201cincreasingly drastic.\u201d<\/p>\n The credit rating agency has since praised Solomon\u2019s administration\u2019s 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<\/a>, which was about to cost the city an additional $40 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jersey City has requested a record-breaking $150 million in state aid from Trenton to help plug its quarter-billion-dollar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[13162,3365,19962,862,3677,11487,1092,1442,57,6588,237,1066,9,24,55,54,56,2137,58],"class_list":["post-168866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-aid","tag-economy","tag-finances","tag-governor","tag-governors","tag-jersey-city","tag-mayor","tag-mayors","tag-metro","tag-mikie-sherrill","tag-money","tag-new-jersey","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-politicians","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}