Clifton council opens 2025 budget review; members flag $8 million shortfall and $1.07 million in delinquent sewer charges

The Clifton Municipal Council met under a special-meeting notice published Feb. 10, 2025, to begin review of the city—s 2025 municipal budget, focusing early on the sewer utility, fund balance and revenue assumptions.

Council members and staff told colleagues the current fund faces an estimated shortfall of roughly $8,000,000 in the draft 2025 budget and that the city is relying less on one-time federal American Rescue Plan (ARPA) payouts and other grants than in recent years. Council members pressed administration for more detailed, year-by-year fund-balance and revenue breakdowns and for earlier distribution of budget documents before future meetings.

Sewer utility: delinquent accounts, rate pressure and transfers Officials reported $1,072,391.52 in unpaid sewer charges from 2024, and said delinquent notices have been or are being mailed. Council members were told unpaid sewer charges generally enter the tax-sale process about a year after nonpayment; if a lien is sold at tax sale a lienholder pays the city and the revenue is realized then. Staff said collection rates run higher for property taxes overall (about 98%) than for sewer accounts (about 91%).

Council members and staff also discussed a large 2025 increase in the sewer budget tied to higher billing from the Passaic Valley Sewage Commission and other cost pressures. To balance the utility for the draft budget, staff said they moved $200,000 from the current fund to cover a sewer deficit and relied on sewer fund balance to absorb the remainder; council members were told using the draft figures would exhaust the sewer fund balance (staff described a roughly $1.06 million use of fund-balance to make the utility work under the current draft). Several…