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Hackensack mayor points to developer pilot arrears and healthcare spikes behind steep tax increase
Summary
Mayor Gaines told the June 30 council meeting that a 94% spike in monthly medical claims and $5.4 million in unpaid developer pilot payments left for the city to collect worsened this year’s tax bill; he described audits, demand letters and early recoveries and pledged continued collections and transparency.
Mayor Cassin Gaines told the Hackensack City Council on June 30 that the city’s recent tax increase reflects a combination of inherited budget shortfalls, sharply higher healthcare claims and long‑running gaps in collections from developer pilot agreements.
“During their final six months in office, monthly medical claims ran an average of 94% higher than the prior year,” Gaines said, and that spike, because Hackensack is self‑insured, “directly forced a 48% spike in our excess loss insurance premium” that the new council faced on taking office. He added the council’s audit uncovered “12 separate developers” in default and about $5.4 million in unclaimed pilot revenue.
Those findings, Gaines said, are the basis for the city’s current efforts to recover money and rein in future costs. “Our demand letters are already working. One developer has already hand delivered a million dollar check to the city. Another has agreed to pay nearly $500,000,” he said, and reported that about $2 million is either collected or on track to be collected so far.
Gaines characterized prior financial decisions as rushed and insufficiently transparent. “They projected fiscal health while draining our reserves,” he said. He described actions his administration has taken: a strict audit of out‑of‑network provider payments, adding a secondary screening agent, rescinding last‑minute pilot agreements the previous council approved, and securing grants and other funding for parks and infrastructure.
At the meeting residents repeatedly raised concerns about affordability after tax bills arrived. James Angler, a Hackensack homeowner, told council members his taxes had risen by about $4,000 over the past three to four years and urged the council to find ways to ease the burden on working households.
Council members and the mayor said they will continue the collection and audit work and aim to improve transparency so the community understands both how the city got to this point and the steps under way to address it. No formal vote was required on those remarks; the council adjourned after routine business.
