Hoboken City Council again votes down budget amendment with tax decrease

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As they did earlier this month, the majority of the Hoboken City Council voted down a budget amendment proposed by 2nd Ward Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher last night.

By John Heinis/Hudson County View

The vote occurred about 15 minutes into the meeting after some brief verbal sparring, failing by a tally of 5-4, with Council members Mike Russo, Phil Cohen, Vanessa Falco, Emily Jabbour, and Jim Doyle voting no.

The vote and discussion prior to it were not saved on the city’s Zoom recording of the meeting that is now available on their Facebook page, though some parting shots remain on full display.

” … To say that the finance committee is doing everything they can to move this forward … what the finance committee is doing is working on a schedule that they’re comfortably delaying the review of the budget: that’s not okay with me, I don’t think that’s right for the public,” 2nd Ward Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher, the resolution sponsor, said at last night’s meeting.

The measure called for reducing the tax levy by $1,900,000, or 3.1 percent, as opposed to the 4.5 percent that she proposed at the June 2nd meeting, which was also voted down 5-4.

This proposal also added back $400,000 towards salary adjustments, $150,000 for tax appeals, and $250,000 towards the surplus, which were not a part of the original amendment.

Councilwoman-at-Large Emily Jabbour, who previously told HCV she voted down Fisher’s prior proposal since she wasn’t convinced it wouldn’t negatively impact day-to-day operations, again disagreed with her colleague.

“Believe me, I’m not interested in any of this back and forth, what I would like to point out is that the state has not actually reviewed or approved the introduced budget yet. The idea that we would be able to move forward on this and have the state actually get back to us is not gonna happen soon.”

She added that guidance from the state has been crucial this year so that municipalities can receive guidance on how they can use federal COVID-19 relief funds.

The council approved the first reading of a roughly $125 million budget, which includes $7 million from the American Rescue Plan, with no tax increase introduced by the administration back on April 7th.

Additionally, Jabbour and Doyle had proposed an ordinance preventing short-term rentals at rent-controlled buildings, which was panned by four of their colleagues, though it was pulled from the agenda rather than calling a vote on first reading.

” … We have agreed to table the proposal and we hope to reintroduce an amended version of it at a future council meeting, and we look forward to having the support of our colleagues,” Doyle, Jabbour, and Falco said in a joint statement this morning.

“To that end, we also support adding resources to our rent leveling office to ensure policies such as this one can be adequately regulated and enforced.”


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13 COMMENTS

  1. Curious if anyone is keeping track of Councilwoman Fisher’s legislative wins? As Hoboken is the home of the first baseball game, looks like she’s batting a solid .000 this term. Maybe if she spent less time sparring with trolls on Twitter or trying to get John Allen fired, she could focus on what she was elected to do and support her 2nd Ward constituents.

    And again, I would like to voice my utter disgust for the way our City Council speaks to one another. This was yet another embarrassing display of disrespect toward each other and they’re all guilty of it, with the exception of Councilman Doyle (maybe). Anyone else notice that Councilman DeFusco was on his cell for a significant portion of the time during the meeting? Clearly he had somewhere else better to be, just like he did during the pandemic.

    • Oh look another Ravibot Terror Flier lover. Shut up John Allen. You’re a creep.

      Fisher has helped Hoboken a ton and got the water contract fiasco redone. What did you have to do with it?

  2. Tiff is by far the smartest person in any room she’s in. It’s so obvious. I watch the meetings just to hear her talk. It’s not all about accomplishing things you know. Her word to accomplishment ratio is second to none. Words matter. The more the better.

    • You’re 100% correct that words matter. Just like when Councilwoman Fisher described Mayor Bhalla as “unelectable” or when during her tenure as the Hoboken Democratic Committee Chair, she supported Jen Giattino (a card carrying Republican at the time) or probably the most offensive when she uses her words to defend Councilman DeFusco. That relationship is the definition of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”. It’s pathetic the way that Councilwoman Fisher will jump through hoops to defend him and he rarely – if ever – has her back. She’s getting used and isn’t clear minded enough to realize it. And that is why as her constituent, she lost my support a long time ago.

      Where I beg to differ is the way you minimize accomplishments. We elect our representatives to do things that will make our community a better place now and in the future. It sounds like you’re simply giving a pass to an elected official who doesn’t know how to work well with others and get can’t anything done. Talk is cheap when the words are of no value. We deserve action. You may be surprised when you watch what a person does more than what s/he says.

      Thank goodness Councilwoman Fisher has made it very clear she’s not running. #ourhoboken will be a better place in the years to come.

  3. Falco is doing her best to follow in The Falco tradition of going with the machine. Too bad she’s not smart enough to learn there’s no way the Bhalla/Reform supporters will ever vote for her.- and it’s not because of her being 1/2 Italian or her other half. It’s because she’s a typical old guard hack from the Eugene Drayton and Anthony Russo School of Politics

    • I’d like to give our neighbors the benefit of the doubt and feel that they see the value that she’s brought to the council, especially once she realized she didn’t need to be Councilman DeFusco’s puppet and began speaking up for herself. I think Hoboken’s moved beyond new versus old guard mentalities and simply wants good people on the council who will get sh*t done.

  4. ” her other half” ByeByeVee, would be Black or African American. Will not hurl an accusation of racism, will only point out not mentioning her “other half” can be construed as racist.

    The barriers between race and ethnicity and politics have been blurred recently but I have always thought the insular nature of living in Hoboken conferred color blindness. ByeByeVee don’t try to prove me wrong.

    Your comment would have registered your displease with Vanessa without mentioning her heritage.

    TTFN,

    Perry

    • Oh look who crawled from a rock…
      The Cammarano apologist

      Hypocrites like you prayed on the African Americans community for paid workers on Election day to support corrupt politicians who kept them in the back of town while you enjoyed patronage spoils.
      You assume a lot and you know what they say about “ass”uming…

  5. Dear SS4PB,

    Will not allow the bile enabled by anonymity to blur this conversation. My point is abstraction do not add to the conversation. Vanessa has a public record. Mentioning her race was not necessary to voicing displeasure with it.
    Happy Father’s Day to you and all Father’s. It is the world’s second hardest job!

    TTFN,

    Perry

  6. Hey PBI,
    Have you every met SSFPB, seems you may belong to the same conspiracy chat rooms.
    No I lodged a complaint against Ravi, not because of religion, but because he lied to the Hoboken City Council, the Hobokem Mumicipal Attorney, the Local Finance Board, but most egregiously,he lied to the citizen of Hoboken.
    Just ask him when you see him at work!
    Again, PBI, enjoy Father’s day with the one’s you love no one is reading this nonsense anyway!

    TTFN,
    Perry

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