Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop introduced a $658 million municipal budget Monday for 2020 that will increase spending as the city copes with the heavy economic impact caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The pandemic, which has claimed the lives of 510 residents, left the city with a $70 million budget hole due to a lost revenue and additional expenses, prompting officials to find $25 million worth of cuts and other savings measures.
The good news for taxpayers is the budget does not carry a municipal tax increase. However, the spending plan includes over $12.5 million in cuts to the Department of Public Safety and a drastic slash to the newly reorganized Department of Youth Development and Recreation.
Fulop said Monday the city has been focused on the struggles residents continue to face during the pandemic. While the city has leveraged approximately $20 million in CARES Act funding to help offset additional expenses incurred, Fulop said City Hall is dedicated to finding other internal avenues to balance the budget without further burdening taxpayers.
“Our budget team has been working since day one to finance the expansive city services and resources that are experiencing more demand than ever before, while simultaneously plugging a gaping budget hole in the wake of the pandemic that has crippled other municipalities across the nation,” Fulop said.
The municipal budget increased by 7% from the $612 million spending plan that was proposed in January.
Since then, the city has had to tap $7 million in surplus funds and account for a $10.2 million loss in miscellaneous revenue, including $4.9 million in lost hotel tax money and $3.1 million in lost municipal court fines.
Within the Department of Public Safety, police salaries and wages will be trimmed by $7 million, while $4.6 million will be cut in fire salaries and wages.
A citywide hiring and compensation freeze will save the city $5.5 million, with most of those savings attributed to a freeze on new police and fire recruits.
But the $12.5 million reduction represents only a 6% cut to the overall Public Safety budget, which was supposed to be $206 million before coronavirus arrived.
Not speculating on the impact the proposed cuts to public safety may have, Carmine Disbrow, the president of one of Jersey City’s police unions, said that “the budget process is a long one” and shared his hope that city officials will continue to seek other ways to fill budget shortfalls brought on by COVID-19.
“Mayor Fulop is right not to put more financial burden on the backs of local taxpayers,” Disbrow said. “The weight of it also can’t be laid at the feet of the men and women who have worked tirelessly, despite increasing danger to themselves, to keep Jersey City safe.”
While Public Safety is the department with the largest budget cut, the city’s Department of Youth Development and Recreation may be most affected by the austerity measures. The department will see its $5.3 million budget slashed by 42%, with most of the cuts targeting salaries and wages.
City spokeswoman Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione said in order to form a responsible budget with no tax increases, the administration had to make a lot of tough decisions.
Former councilman and community leader Chris Gadsden has been part of a number of protests calling for the city to defund the police department and reallocate resources to health and recreation services. He said the new budget doesn’t address their calls to increase spending in other areas of city.
“That is the cut he has to have in order to balance the budget, but it is still not speaking to providing those services that we are talking about like social services, youth…recreation,” Gadsden said.
The City Council is expected to vote on a resolution introducing the new, $658 million budget on Thursday at 6 p.m.