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<\/a>File photo.<\/p>\nBy Dan Israel\/Hudson County View<\/p>\n
The governing body voted unanimously (5-0) to introduce the 2026 spending plan of $172,988,250.89. However, there was no presentation of the budget by any official at the meeting.<\/p>\n
According to city spokesman Joe Ryan, Chief Financial Officer (CF) Donna Mauer said the budget comes with a $105,889,178 tax levy, which marks a 2.3 percent increase from last year\u2019s $103,476,875.07.<\/p>\n
The tax levy consists of $100,365,530.37 to be raised for municipal purposes, $1,731,610.45 for the school district, and $3,792,037.56 for the library.<\/p>\n
This equates to roughly a $123 annual increase on the average assessed property of $400,000, according to Mauer.<\/p>\n
Looking into the budget itself<\/a>, HCV found that the revenues consist, in addition to the over $105 million tax levy, of $12,100,000 from the surplus and $350,000 from delinquent taxes.<\/p>\n On the surplus side, this is increased substantially by $5,350,000 from $6,750,000 last year while delinquent taxes are down slightly from $400,000 last year.<\/p>\n In addition, the appropriations include $54,649,072.51 in miscellaneous revenues, which are down significantly by $8,157,391.90 from $62,806,464.41 last year.<\/p>\n According to the introduced budget, the miscellaneous revenues include $26,535,950.88 in local revenue largely from payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) agreements, up by $2,451,650.71 from $24,084,300.17 last year.<\/p>\n State aid remained flat from last year at $8,935,091, as did revenue from shared services agreements at $627,453.<\/p>\n Private revenues remaining from last year that are present in this budget, including various grants and opioid settlement funds, totaling $1,327,172.45.<\/p>\n This marks a stark decrease by $7,462,603.9 from $8,789,776.35 last year.<\/p>\n Special revenue this year totals is $17,223,405.18, declining slightly by $3,146,438.49 from $20,369,843.67 last year.<\/p>\n This includes funds from: Port Authority Land Payment at $5,000,000; the Royal Caribbean Cruise Port at $2,416,140, the sale of municipal assets at $2,100,000, Spectra Energy at $1,651,494, and the parking tax at $1,599,403, among others.<\/p>\n Of the $172,988,250.89 in expenditures, $139,857,280.07 is for municipal purposes, up by $10,560,680 from $129,296,600.05 last year.<\/p>\n The bulk of that is for operations tallying $117,666,760, $9,323,347 from $108,343,413 last year.<\/p>\n Of the over $117 million for operations, the biggest line items were salaries and wages totaling $68,803,285, up by $4,187,285 from $64,616,000 last year.<\/p>\n Specifically, this included for $25,858,460 for police salaries, up slightly from $23,495,000 last year, and firefighter salaries at $21,431,025, also up by slightly from $20,030,000 last year.<\/p>\n Outside of operations, other big operating costs include employee group health insurance at $27,196,000, up by $3,787,020 from $23,408,980 last year.<\/p>\n The rest of that over $139 million for municipal purposes, the other $22,190,520.07 is for deferred charges and statutory expenses, up slightly from $20,953,187.05 last year.<\/p>\n The biggest item under that category is the Police and Fireman\u2019s Retirement System of NJ at $17,196,843, up a bit from $15,850,343 last year.<\/p>\n In addition, the budget includes $9,245,077.78 for operations excluded from the municipal budget cap, decreasing dramatically by $8,029,317.95 from $17,274,395.73 last year.<\/p>\n This includes: $7,375,407.56 in other operations, up slightly from $6,354,429.69 last year; $3,792,037.56 for the maintenance of the library, up slightly from $3,613,409.69 last year; $332,000 for shared services agreements, flat from last year, and $1,537,670.20 in public and private programs offset by revenues, down dramatically by $9,050,295.84 from $10,587,966.04 last year.<\/p>\n On top of that, $19,663,248.80 is for municipal debt service, down slightly from $20,627,124.01 last year.<\/p>\n While total deferred charges increased a bit from $800,000 to $1,400,000 this year, the amount raised for the school district decreased substantially by $3,597,323.06 from $5,328,933.51 last year to $1,731,610.45 in 2026.<\/p>\n Rounding out expenses, there is $1,091,033.81 including in the budget for reserve for uncollected taxes, down slightly from $1,134,478.18 last year.<\/p>\n If the introduced budget is amended by the council, these numbers could change.<\/p>\n This roughly lines up with what Business Administrator Mary Jane Desmond, also the Bayonne board of education president and a recent mayoral candidate, said at a BOE meeting last month<\/a>.<\/p>\n At the time, she said the council would introduce the budget in May before the municipal elections on May 12th, but that didn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, her estimates of a $170 million budget with a 2.2 tax increase and a $124 average annual impact on taxpayers lines up with the introduced budget.<\/p>\n