Jersey City BUDGET CRISIS - Review and Recommendations

Jersey City Pay-to-Play Reform - Enacted

February 20, 2010

CIVIC JC FOR OPEN AND TRANSPARENT GOVERNMENT IN JERSEY CITY

BUDGET CRISIS

Civic JC is deeply concerned about the financial health of Jersey City and believes that, failing significant action by local government, we will face unacceptable property tax increases that will destabilize our local economy and the long term health and well-being of our city.

We advocate (1) immediate rigorous cost-cutting initiatives that do not reduce services to the Jersey City public and do not have negative long-term financial repercussions; and (2) the establishment of a public budget commission charged with annual budget review and creation/maintenance of a five-year financial master plan.

Cost-Cutting Initiatives

Structural initiatives must be identified, studied, and swiftly implemented to permanently reduce the costs of local government. These items should be on the table: management structure, departmental consolidation, labor reductions, shared services, reduced employee benefits (including health, parking, motor vehicle use), and increases in revenue to the city from the semi-autonomous public authorities.  Efforts must be initiated to obtain support at the state level for legislation to reform the public safety (fire and police) contract arbitration process and to prepare for increased local contribution for our schools, potentially an additional $125 million.

Municipal Budget Commission

A public budget commission needs to be established. Its members should be from equal parts government, business, and the general public and supported by relevant municipal departments.  The commission will perform three primary functions: (1) oversee public review of the budget (2) provide recommendations for the current-year proposed budget and (3) prepare and maintain a five-year financial master plan matching revenues to expenses.

The commission will both review and project revenue streams and analyze and evaluate expenditures.  All property tax abatement agreements greater than five years in term will go before the commission for review and recommendation.  The commission will also be charged with review and evaluation of the budgets for the semi-autonomous agencies, with the aims of cost control and increasing revenue to the city.  An initial commission project will be to study and recommend the need for an independently elected city comptroller.

Redevelopment Pay-to-Play Reform enacted

At its September 9, 2009 meeting, the Jersey City Municipal Council voted 8-0-1 to enact Civic JC’s proposed Redevelopment Pay-to-Play Reform Ordinance.  This ordinance was a long time in coming and represents a critical step forward in bringing ethics reform to Jersey City.

Under New Jersey law, local officials have the authority to exercise eminent domain, irrevocably change zoning and land use, and award tax abatements and other financial benefits to developers performing redevelopment work.  With this much power, conflicts of interest and the appearance of a conflicts of interest must be eliminated for the public to have confidence that redevelopment decisions made by Jersey City government are based on merit, not campaign contributions.

The approved Redevelopment Pay-to-Play Reform ordinance now bans contributions to local candidates, elected officials and municipal and county political parties by developers and their professionals who wish to do redevelopment work in Jersey City. 

Link to the full press release on CivicJC.org

Important Dates:

February 24th 6:30pm - Council 2nd Reading 2009 Budget

March 2010 – Citizen Forum - St. Peter’s College

April 2010 – School Board Election

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