Jersey City Council adopts amended 2025 budget 6-2 with modest tax increase

Jersey City Municipal Council members voted 6-2 on Sept. 17, 2025, to adopt an amended municipal budget for calendar year 2025 following a public hearing and public comments. The council approved the amendment as Item 10.1; Councilperson Solomon and Councilperson Gilmore voted no.

The budget amendment increases the total budget by $5,500,000 from the version introduced earlier, bringing the city's total annual budget to about $750,000,000, city finance staff said during the meeting. The city's proposed municipal tax rate was reported as 0.819, with a 0.97% tax increase that the finance presenter said would amount to about $37.83 a year on the average assessed home (city average assessed value stated as $481,000).

The amendment was considered at a special meeting that was advertised under the New Jersey Open Public Meetings Act (N.J. Stat. Laws 1975, ch. 231), and the legal notice appeared in the Bergen Record on Sept. 12, 2025, meeting the three-day publication requirement the council cited. The council also referenced…