PERTH AMBOY – Where the budget is concerned, the city council supports transparency by the administration. But the mayor’s recent Olive Street “Budget Address” was self-serving and full of half-truths. She was quick to blame others for the city’s budget problems, but took no responsibility herself for the deficit overspending that made cuts necessary. 

The members of the city council do not want to play the blame game, but we believe the residents of Perth Amboy deserve a true account of how we arrived at the present budget. Here are the facts.  

● Earlier this year, the mayor presented the city council with a 2019 budget that contained a 5.4% tax increase.

● All five members of the city council rejected the mayor’s budget increase, believing it would put too great a burden on the city’s tax payers.

● The city council then set out to revise the budget with two main goals:

o 1. Reduce the mayor’s 5.4% tax increase, to put less of a burden on property owners.

o 2. Ensure that there would be no cuts to essential services:  the police department, the fire department, and the department of sanitation.

● The council’s first budget revision carried a 2.5% tax increase—lower than the mayor’s 5.4% increase, but still too high in the opinion of some members of the council.  We wanted to see if we could further limit the tax increase. 

● The council went back to work, attempting to bring down the tax increase even more—while still preserving essential police, fire, and sanitation services. 

● The city council then came up with a second budget revision, this time with a 1% tax increase. This budget still preserved essential services, but required use of a larger part of the surplus and the layoff of several nonessential workers. 

Again, the council’s twin goals have always been to reduce the burden on the city’s already overburdened taxpayers and to prevent layoffs of police officers, firefighters, and sanitation workers. 

Unfortunately, cuts had to be made in other areas to achieve this goal.   

The mayor insists that her budget would have only required a $155 yearly increase, but that is just an average, meaning many people would pay several hundred dollars more in municipal taxes alone. The increase would rise even higher when the school tax and county tax were added.

As members of the city council, our loyalty is to the taxpayers, who elected us with a promise to hold the line on taxes. We know that many of the people of Perth Amboy are struggling financially, even those who are homeowners. Many people live paycheck to paycheck, and would find a tax increase of several hundred dollars a burden, especially as fees for many other goods and services also increase. 

There has been a lot of talk about being responsible where the budget is concerned. The city council believes that a responsible budget is not just fiscally sound, but is also fair and responsible to the people of Perth Amboy who must pay the bill.

Respectfully,

William Petrick, city council president

Helmin Caba, councilman

Fernando Irizzary, councilman

Joel Pabon, councilman

Milady Tejeda, councilwoman