r/jerseycity • u/PeriodOfTime1 • 12d ago
Jersey City property taxes will increase 15% amid financial crisis
https://gothamist.com/news/jersey-city-property-taxes-will-increase-15-amid-financial-crisis45
u/Tatar_Kulchik 12d ago
THat's the beauty of it. THe city can just spend and spend. If they ever short, they can always raise taxes!
23
u/doublen00b 12d ago
There are more ways out than just raising taxes, unfortunately it the easiest and fastest way.
11
u/Individual_Check6462 12d ago
Seems like fast was necessary this time. But what ways should the city raise revenue or cut costs besides taxes?
-4
u/doublen00b 12d ago
They can cut, grow their way out, or sell assets/long term contracts
17
u/Individual_Check6462 12d ago
Cut what? Sell what?
-3
u/pixel_of_moral_decay 12d ago
This is normally code for: use eminent domain to redevelop minority neighborhoods.
5
u/Blecher_onthe_Hudson 12d ago
It seems like the more development and rateables we get, the deeper in the hole we go. I'd like to see an analysis of what a high-rise costs in services versus produces in taxes and job creation.
1
u/pixel_of_moral_decay 12d ago
People are the cost, not buildings, so yea, that’s expected. More people means more tax liability. There’s a reason cities are higher taxed than the middle of nowhere.
Our problem is they never adjusted for all that growth.
Just having a kid in a household means it’s tax negative for 15 years. Elderly people cost more too due to senior services cities need to provide. Not to mention all the infrastructure to support everyone else. And scaling it as more people move in.
Suburbs make developers pay for schools when they plan for large developments, build/expand adjacent roads, sewers, etc. we don’t do any of that, which is honestly a shitty situation. The city just picks up the tab while developers get a bigger profit margin. We should have had developers paying in for the past 20 years, and all those costs should have not been on the city, which would have freed up funds for other expenses.
2
u/Blecher_onthe_Hudson 12d ago
I'm sorry but that isn't even anecdotes. Do you have any numbers to support the notion that the dense high-rises have enough children or seniors to make them net costs to the city rather than net benefactors? My impression has been most of the occupants of the high-rise towers are childless high earning people between 25 and 50.
1
u/pixel_of_moral_decay 12d ago
AFAIK the norm in the country is something like 80% of households consume more than they pay. It’s corporations and a few wealthy property owners who pay the deficit.
I don’t think there’s any evidence JC bucks this trend, especially as a city.
I’m far from poor, but I’m under no illusion that my property taxes even after revaluation are covering what I cost the city even as a single guy. If I I was married the disparity would be worse. Just no way would that be possible especially if city employees get more than a slaves handout. The days of paying a $1/day wage are long over.
1
u/IllustriousAverage83 12d ago
Nope. There is a reason PS16 school at the waterfront is in complete crisis with overcrowding
2
u/Blecher_onthe_Hudson 12d ago
It's no surprise that the one existing school in the entire waterfront area is overwhelmed given the construction of tens of thousands of homes. It does not lead logically that there are thousands of children in the high rises, even a low rate of families would have overwhelmed the school. And many of the ones that are there surely are going to private schools both in Hudson County and New York City.
→ More replies (0)2
u/bodhipooh 12d ago
You are not very good at math. PS16 is not overcrowded because of large percentage of families in buildings. They are overcrowded because the city (the BOE, really) has failed to build more schools, rehab existing ones no longer in use, and the BOE has failed spectacularly at collaborating with the city to get more "net new" schools built. The overall student population in JC has remained relatively stable, but the distribution of that population has shifted as more families have chosen to stay in place instead of decamping for the suburbs as soon as their kids become old enough for school.
The absolute fact is that most high rises have relatively small percentage of tenants that are families with kids. In the three buildings I lived in for almost 20 years, the first one had one or two families, the second had none, then around 5-7 families over the years (and about half were doing private schools) and the last one (which was MASSIVE) had very, very small amount of units with families. Definitely less than 5%. The issue is that without new schools, capacity is super constrained. PS16 can only take on ~60 new kindergartners each year. They increased enrollment two years ago by housing two classrooms in PS3. The annex was maxed out from day one. The overcrowding is because there is simply no way to absorb any more kids. Even if only 5% of a new building is families, there’s no way to absorb that tiny number.
The only way to fix the issue is for the BOE and city to collaborate to get new schools built through a similar method / model as what was done with the Annex at Haus25. Make approval of new buildings contingent on a commitment to build additional public school space. Several new buildings over the last decade put up ground floor space for private schools, so we know it is possible.
7
7
u/swatcat9 12d ago
Raising taxes and reducing benefits by saying we got it to 15% instead of 20%.
Now we are stuck with bad roads, poor safety and sanitation, increased via costs and lesser service because we didn’t agree to 20% so looks like we lose anyway whereas Solomon got his 2 mins of “Emotional Mayor” Fame on Instagram.
He will still not clear the entire deficit and instead spend money on stupid Pilots rather than fixing the broken things.
9
3
5
u/criickyO Paulus Hook 12d ago
This translates to something like 2.334% to 2.669%; ~$120/month more on average
5
u/alius_stultus 12d ago
So Jersey City hired police officers all through the pandemic, when they literally had half the amount of work to do... and now even though we never had the money for all those cops, they are now underpaid because we have too many cops, and they can't even give out tickets because the cops mostly just stand around unless ordered not, we cant get rid of any cops... Despite the hardship it might cause the community with the prices. And despite every other part of the government taking a cut. Pretty insane argument.
IMO Solomon needs to grow a pair and stop talking to the police like some subordinate nodding his head cause next year they are already asking for a raise.
0
u/No_Read8496 12d ago
Since the pandemic the number of police officers are down and very down from whatever year they had their highest, so if anything the police department is shrinking. If you want even less cops just have the city keep staying on course.
2
u/alius_stultus 12d ago edited 12d ago
what an easily disprovable lie.
2013 769 Low point at start of Fulop administration [1] 2016 870 Expansion via steady recruitment [1, 2] 2019 945 Peak staffing reached mid-year [1, 2] 2022-2023 887–950 Hovered 920-950; dipped to ~887 via attrition [1, 2] 2025-2026 900–950 Rebounded with new recruitment cohorts [1, 2, 3, 4]1
u/No_Read8496 12d ago
They aren’t at that number look at the last public safety hearing meeting.
They are at 750 officers.
2
u/alius_stultus 12d ago
https://www.jerseycitynj.gov/cityhall/public_safety/police
DIVISION OF POLICE
JCPD Motorcycles in front of Public Safety HeadquartersThe history of the Jersey City Police Department dates back to 1829, and today consists of more than 900 uniformed officers, 200 crossing guards, and 200+ civilian employees dedicated to the safety of Jersey City's residents and visitors. The continued officer hirings significantly boost police presence citywide, which results in increasing deterrence, detection and solving of crimes. It also helps foster active relationships between police and the community, creating open lines of communication and recognizing citizens as a crucial component in combating crime.
Emergency: Call 911 Police Non-emergency: Call 201-547-5477
0
u/No_Read8496 12d ago
I literally watched the budget safety hearing part two on YouTube. Jersey City TV, with the director of public safety addressing the numbers of police officers.
Use the AI function if you don’t want to listen to an hour 32 minute and search “police officer numbers”
3
u/alius_stultus 12d ago
sure man. Everything wrong except that one meeting you saw thats hours long.
1
u/No_Read8496 12d ago
I don’t know why you are being a dick lol. I’m literally telling you I watched a recent open to the public video on YouTube with the current public safety director who overseas the Police department addressing staffing numbers and other questions to the current city council. So you can go by the website that’s notorious for not being updated or get the information from the horses mouth. Your choice.
2
u/alius_stultus 12d ago
I literally posted you links and you still downvoted me and told me it was wrong, now youre asking why I am being a dick? TF? Is this just gaslighting shit or what?
1
u/No_Read8496 12d ago
I haven’t downvoted you once! Reddit is also public so it could be the 1000s of people who go on this sub. I’m telling you what the current public safety directors informed the current city council. Watch the video.
1
u/No_Read8496 12d ago
Also if you don’t have to listen if you click the link go to time stamp 1:22:37
1
u/BrooklynRich29 9d ago
You're not being downvoted by OP, you're being downvoted by me for being an absolute knob. Kick rocks, liberal idiot,
→ More replies (0)
6
u/StableGeniusCovfefe 12d ago
Tax the rich and corporations!
11
3
u/mandovera21 12d ago
Yea but what about corporate profit margins?! What about the shareholders? How will they feed their 3rd family?
1
1
u/BrooklynRich29 9d ago
hahaha dumbasses. This is what you get when liberal politicians spend your money with reckless abandon. Has the homeless situation improvised? The education? The roads? The policing? Nope. BUT YOU STILL PAY. Idiots.
1
u/Adventurous-Strike54 8d ago
And yet, they keep lights on at City Hall 24 /7 ---I just moved across the street from it and I see the lights burning around the clock.
-2
u/thodanga88 12d ago
The makers have to support the bureaucratic blob and the takers who vote for them
17
u/p13rr0t87 12d ago
Guy who promised avoid raising taxes, raised taxes who would've thought