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Hudson County adopts $713.6 million budget; Secaucus mayor urges state aid after 30% county tax spike
Summary
The Hudson County Board of County Commissioners adopted its 2025 budget on June 11, 2025, by an 8-1 vote. Secaucus Mayor Mike Gonnelli told commissioners his town faces an about-30% increase in the county share of property taxes and asked the county to seek state assistance; commissioners agreed to draft a resolution.
Hudson County commissioners on Wednesday adopted the 2025 county budget after a public hearing, voting 8–1 to approve total general appropriations of $713,587,235.10 and an amount to be raised by taxation for county purposes of $453,180,876.11.
Secaucus Mayor Mike Gonnelli told the board the county portion of property taxes on an average home in his town rose roughly 30%, a change he attributed to the state equalization formula: "the formula is really flawed," Gonnelli said, asking the county to delay action or seek other remedies so the town could avoid the full impact.
"We went up over 6 million," Gonnelli said, referencing the town's new county levy impact, and asked commissioners to push for relief or shared-service measures with the Legislature and the Governor.
County Administrator Abraham Antun replied that delaying the county budget would not solve Secaucus's immediate rate problem and urged pursuing state extraordinary aid: "delaying our process is not going to help the issue," Antun said. Tax official Don Kenney explained that the tax rate cannot be struck until state certifications are returned from municipalities and schools; he estimated certifications typically arrive "maybe the end of June, maybe sometimes early July," depending on submissions.
Commissioner Albert Cifelli, a certified assessor, and Commissioner Robert Baselice backed a request to seek state assistance. Commissioners agreed to bring a walk-on resolution urging the Governor and Legislature to consider targeted aid for Secaucus; the board instructed staff to prepare the text for consideration the following day.
The budget document read into the record by Director Cheryl Fuller included $208,406,358.99 in miscellaneous revenues and a $52 million surplus anticipated in general revenues. The County also read an Open Space appropriation of $13,567,744.59.
Chairman Anthony Romano thanked county staff, administrators and the County Executive's office for preparing the budget and acknowledged the hardship for Secaucus residents. Commissioner William O'Dea was the lone dissenting vote on final adoption.
Next steps: the board will present a resolution requesting special state aid for Secaucus at a subsequent session; county staff also said they would work with state legislators and municipal officials on possible shared-service options and other relief measures.
