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CFO presents draft 2025 budget showing 5.6% tax increase; council presses alternatives and state aid
Summary
City CFO Javier Silva presented a draft municipal budget on April 8 showing a proposed 5.6% tax increase if the draft includes only $27 million of the $33 million in transitional aid requested from the state.
City Chief Financial Officer Javier Silva presented a draft of the calendar-year 2025 municipal budget at the Paterson council workshop on April 8, listing rising pension, insurance and salary costs and a pending request for state transitional aid.
“This budget highlights: our pension is going up $2,000,000, our insurance is going up $4,000,000 and our salaries are going up $4,000,000,” Silva told the council. Silva said the administration has asked the state for $33 million in transitional aid; because of fiscal-year timing the draft introduced at the workshop included $27 million, which produced an initial tax-impact calculation of a 5.6% increase.
Council members expressed clear concern. Several said they would not support a 5.6% tax increase for homeowners and asked the administration and finance office to develop contingency scenarios showing the budget impact if the city receives lower transitional-aid amounts (for example $29M or $31M) and to outline options for temporary appropriations.
“Patterson residents will not feel the burden until adoption,” Silva said, noting that tax bills are set at adoption and that the introduction is a procedural step that does not immediately change bills. But multiple council members said they feared approval of a high introduced number would be politically or practically difficult to reverse and urged more work on revenue and spending options before adoption.
Council suggestions and next steps included: producing budget projections scaled to different transitional-aid outcomes; examining additional local revenue opportunities and department-level enforcement that could raise collections (e.g., building-permit processing, public-works enforcement, parking and fines); and considering temporary appropriations if the council cannot reach agreement on a full adopted budget.
The council left the draft on the agenda for formal introduction next week but several members said publicly they intend to oppose a 5.6% adoption; they also requested a more granular revenue and expenditure briefing in the coming weeks.
