{"id":294309,"date":"2026-07-13T11:56:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T11:56:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/294309\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T11:56:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T11:56:28","slug":"jersey-city-mayor-touts-886-5m-budget-ahead-of-intro-we-did-protect-core-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/294309\/","title":{"rendered":"Jersey City mayor touts $886.5M budget ahead of intro: ‘We did protect core services’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jersey City Mayor James Solomon touted the city\u2019s proposed $886,546,594.16 municipal budget<\/a> with a 15.5% tax increase in a phone interview yesterday ahead of Wednesday\u2019s introduction by the City Council.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Screenshot via YouTube.<\/p>\n

By John Heinis\/Hudson County View<\/p>\n

Off the bat, Solomon explained why the city\u2019s long-anticipated 2026 spending plan<\/a> was released at about 11 p.m. Friday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe released supporting documents with it, including spreadsheets and related materials, and we wanted to make sure it was all accurate prior to the release. The budget will be introduced on Wednesday and the public and the council gets full month to scrutinize the full document,\u201d he told HCV.<\/p>\n

When asked to respond to criticisms about Jersey City\u2019s financial troubles coming up at least semi-regularly on the campaign trail last year, for example former Gov. Jim McGreevey said a $150 million deficit was on the horizon, Solomon said he never shied away from the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the campaign, I was very clear how bad I thought the city\u2019s finances are and we have to clean house. My criticisms of the budget led Mayor [Steven] Fulop to actively work against my campaign for the final six months of the race,\u201d Solomon stated.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the deficit was $100 million less [$150 million vs. $255 million], we wouldn\u2019t have to do a $60 million tax increase. We all ended up in a historic crisis in Jersey City\u2019s modern history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Solomon also stated that he understands why residents are upset and why some feel more could\u2019ve been done to get ahead of the city\u2019s current fiscal crisis, but he reiterated some reasons why he feels we ended up here.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 2025 budget was a fictional document, that was pure fiction from the former mayor to boost his gubernatorial run to make it look like the city was in better shape than it actually was and now we\u2019re having to pay off all of his bills,\u201d he asserted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were borrowing like a family paying for goods they cannot afford, he puts tens of millions of dollars onto the city\u2019s credit card. We\u2019re simply correcting that and it\u2019s just not easy when you have to rectify $109 million in unpaid bills.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fulop has previously called the $255 million figure \u201cfugazi\u201d and subsequently said that this year\u2019s budget would not have had a tax increase if he was still mayor of New Jersey\u2019s second largest city.<\/p>\n

As far as the budget introduction itself goes, Wednesday\u2019s council meeting could be a bit of a fire fight after the majority of the governing body (five members) on Friday pushed back on being blamed for the layoffs of 31 provisional employees, as HCV first reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Solomon said that he has been straightforward that a tax rate under 20 percent will necessitate layoffs, and while he\u2019s not happy with having to layoff any city workers, this is a time where tough decisions have to be made.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal here been to protect core city services and employees. Our 911 system has to work, we need to fill potholes, our fire department needs to remain staffed. Moving from 20 to 15 percent \u2026 that\u2019s a difference of $20 million,\u201d he expressed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe looked for operational efficiencies and that\u2019s how we decided how to make those cuts and certainly for those 31 folks, it\u2019s awful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additionally, Solomon clarified that provisional employees do not have civil service protections, noting that firing civil service employees require a lengthy hearing process that typically takes months, in some cases even years.<\/p>\n

When asked directly if there was any concerns about the budget receiving five votes for introduction on the heels of the council unanimously voting down\u00a0<\/a>(0-9) a 15 percent rate hike for the third quarter tax bills, the mayor took a positive tone.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom our perspective, ultimately at the end of the day, we\u2019re gonna work with the council on this budget and the day-to-day challenges in Jersey City. In this moment, we have two simple messages: Going from 20 to 15 percent requires tough cuts, it\u2019s going to be something that\u2019s gonna be felt. To go below 15 percent, the only option is mass layoffs,\u201d he declared.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we\u2019re saying that to the council directly, we need to be honest with the voters. Our city has to deliver core services, we shouldn\u2019t cut public safety, we shouldn\u2019t cut recreation programs, we need to be able to fill potholes. Ultimately, the state is going to set terms and conditions of the loan, the state is giving us a $105 million loan and they will be mandating a tax rate as part of the conditions of the loan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Solomon continued that the lion\u2019s share of the historic $120 million state aid Jersey City secured remains in negotiations with the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (DCA) as they work to iron out a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that is currently also set for a vote Wednesday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe consequences of not accepting the loan document is the consequences of not being able to fund our city so I believe we\u2019ll be able to work with the council and DCA going forward,\u201d Solomon added.<\/p>\n

\u201d \u2026 We succeeded in getting a lifeline that is keeping the city afloat. I am confident that the city and the DCA will work together towards the best possible outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Further, he said that the state has been monitoring the city\u2019s finances for months and they welcome any other oversight that is required, though that can also come with dire consequences.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we applied for the transitional aid, that started the process of state monitoring. The loan outlines the terms and conditions the process by which they will oversee Jersey City. What happened with Hoboken, as I understand it, was unwilling to set it\u2019s own tax rate, so the DCA stepped in and set the tax rate,\u201d he said of the Mile Square City\u2019s issues in 2009.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo if the state feels we fundamentally cannot do that, or if we pass an artificially low budget, the state can set our budget. I\u2019ve said that they believe our tax rate is 20 percent, so anything below that is going to require a lot of work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before wrapping up the call, Solomon stated that he feels this spending plan is a responsible document that shows where the city\u2019s priorities lie, despite all the well-documented challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did protect core services: We have to deliver a safe 911 system, it\u2019s not acceptable that didn\u2019t work properly for five, six, seven years,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just was not willing to consider cuts to our recreation programming in our budget, it\u2019s just really important that we preserve that for our children.. We have to fill potholes \u2026 That speaks to our values to get through this crisis while staying on our feet.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Jersey City Council will convene for their caucus meeting tomorrow at City Hall, 280 Grove St., at 10 a.m. and the session will also stream live on Microsoft Teams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jersey City Mayor James Solomon touted the city\u2019s proposed $886,546,594.16 municipal budget with a 15.5% tax increase in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[66463,98,100,99,13338,66464,11005,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-294309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-2026-jersey-city-budget","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-james-solomon","tag-jersey-city-budget-deficit","tag-jersey-city-council","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294309","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=294309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}