TONIGHT (WEDNESDAY): 1.5% - 2% TAX ESTIMATE FOR AUGUST BEING VOTED UPON BY CITY COUNCIL
"As a result the City Council will be voting on an estimated annual total tax increase of somewhere between 1.5-2% for the August estimated tax billing."
A couple of weeks ago I informed you that the mayor had proposed a 5% TOTAL tax increase for August. Without rehashing everything, this 5% would have been on your total tax bill (so reflecting the weighted average of all the underlying components – County, School, Open Space, Library, and City). And the real feel impact to your pocket / wallet would have been 10% because we have had no increases for the first two quarters of the year.
The City Council felt it did not have enough information and tabled the resolution. A big component was the County tax rate which the administration could only guestimate to go up about 3% because the “County always goes up” (although last year it didn’t…). At these levels we would have had to increase the estimated August Total Tax Rate by at least 3.74%. Thankfully, for a million reasons, the County Tax rate is expected to go down 6.35% which has a HUGE impact on our total tax rate given County Taxes represent approximately 40% of our total tax. The result is that before any Hoboken City tax increase, we would actually see total taxes go down 1%. However…
As you know Hoboken has a huge operating shortfall this year and we will have a municipal tax increase. Although we have not received a draft budget, my subcommittee met with the administration and reviewed high level information that suggests a meaningful tax increase. As a result the City Council will be voting on an estimated annual total tax increase of somewhere between 1.5-2% for the August estimated tax billing. I will send more information in my next email.
As usual, I meant to send this out earlier today and I am scrambling to get this out before these events start. I will send a more detailed note in the next couple of days.
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