WASHINGTON, D.C. – March 24, 2014 – (RealEstateRama) — Mayor Mark A. Smith announced that the introduced 2014 municipal budget contains no increase in the municipal property tax levy. Mayor Smith said, “My Administration has worked hard for more than five years to streamline local government and to get municipal spending under control. We reduced the number of municipal departments from nine to four. We reduced total municipal debt by over 40%, and ended the practice of bonding for current expenditures.” Mayor Smith continued, “Over the past five years we have slowed the growth of municipal spending and this year, we have stabilized the municipal tax levy despite cuts in state aid, increased pension costs and increases in snow costs during the winter that just ended.”
Mayor Smith said that the City faced some challenges in assembling this year’s budget proposal. State aid to Bayonne has declined by $300,000 since last year’s budget. Snow-related costs increased by $890,000, due to the high snowfall amounts this winter. The proposed 2014 budget also includes $526,000 for costs for this year’s municipal election, a budgetary item that occurs once every four years. In spite of these factors, the total amount of proposed taxation for municipal purposes, the library, and school debt combined amounts to about $20,000 less than the figure for last year.
Mayor Smith concluded, “We will continue to look for ways to make the City of Bayonne even more efficient in the years ahead. We will also move ahead with our pro-development polices, which will add more ratables to our tax base. As new development moves ahead throughout our community, we add tax income from new properties to our revenue stream. New development will ease the tax burden on our current property taxpayers and create jobs and economic growth in the years ahead.”
Council president Terry Ruane welcomed the no tax increase budget. “The council and I have been working closely with Mayor Smith to eliminate municipal debt and cut spending, “ said Ruane, “Our efforts are starting to pay off and this year’s budget with no tax increase is the result.”
