{"id":317096,"date":"2026-08-09T06:46:27","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T06:46:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/317096\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T06:46:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T06:46:27","slug":"state-official-says-jersey-citys-15-tax-hike-is-non-negotiable-for-this-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/317096\/","title":{"rendered":"State official says Jersey City’s 15% tax hike is non-negotiable for this budget"},"content":{"rendered":"

A state official has put in writing that the introduced 15.5 percent tax hike that accompanies Jersey City\u2019s preliminary $886,546,594.16 municipal budget is non-negotiable.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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

\u201cI would like to reiterate that DLGS [Department of Local Government Services] will not approve a local purpose tax levy lower than $457,972,500, which is a 15% increase over the local purpose tax levy of CY2025, per the attached loan agreement, which was approved 9-0 by the City Council,\u201d wrote DLGS Deputy Director Kathleen Long in an email to Jersey City Council President Denise Ridley and Councilman at-Large Rolando Lavarro yesterday.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor your information, modifying this levy increase was not\/is not on the table for any updated agreements \u2026 I would ask that you refrain from submitting any draft amendments in contravention of the loan agreement as it would be a waste of time and resources to review.\u201d<\/p>\n

Long noted that she sent the email after watching the Finance Department\u2019s budget hearing the day prior and heard that there were ongoing efforts to reduce the city\u2019s tax rate for 2026.<\/p>\n

The email exchange was obtained via a source, who is not connected to Ridley or Lavarro, who provided the communications under the condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n

At their July 15th meeting<\/a>, the council unanimously approved a memorandum of understanding with the state for the terms to repay a $105 million loan, the bulk of a $120 million aid package approved by the state legislature at the end of June (the other $15 million was a grant).<\/p>\n

The governing body voted for a 10-year repayment schedule at 2.75 percent interest rate, one of two options\u00a0HCV exclusively reported<\/a> last month. They are poised to vote on the second and final reading of the budget at their August 19th public session.<\/p>\n

Lavarro said Saturday that he considers the DLGS \u201ca partner in addressing Jersey City\u2019s fiscal challenges\u201d before sharing his reply to the council.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the email from Kathleen Long clearly asserts, reducing the levy below the MOU threshold and 15% tax increase is not possible contrary to what I said at yesterday\u2019s Finance budget hearing and in every prior budget hearing and the July 15 council meeting,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cI misunderstood what DLGS communicated to me, Council President Ridley and [Ward F] Councilman [Frank] Gilmore in our meeting on July 13. That being said, I want you to know that my intention was not to mislead the city council or the public.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Jersey City councilman added that he was going to continue working on budget amendments over the next two days and publicly acknowledge that the introduced tax rate cannot be reduced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A state official has put in writing that the introduced 15.5 percent tax hike that accompanies Jersey City\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317097,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[66463,66464,119533,119534,119535,9,11,10,111833],"class_list":["post-317096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-2026-jersey-city-budget","tag-jersey-city-budget-deficit","tag-kathleen-long","tag-new-jersey-department-of-community-affairs","tag-new-jersey-division-of-local-government-services","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-rolando-lavarro"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317096","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=317096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}