I dug into Jersey City's municipal budget (as introduced on May 10th) and wanted to share a visual that I am using to better understand the budget....also, some initial insights:

1. The 2023 budget is mostly "people cost" (salaries & benefits) driven primarily by public safety (police, fire, EMS, etc)
2. Property tax is the biggest - but not the only - revenue source. Jersey City is also relying on abatement PILOT fees, state aid, and local revenues.
3. In terms of change, the city has about $70M less in federal COVID-19 aid this year; this is contributing to an overall property tax increase. I'll be looking at the change from 2022 to 2023 in a separate post.

The “levy” is the revenue line item in the local budget funded by property tax...there are three local levies: the school levy, the municipal levy, and the county levy.  The levy is often the primary funding source for local government, particularly the schools; by contrast, municipalities and counties have other revenue sources they can use including PILOT fees, court-related fees, and local revenues (e.g. parking related monies).  And the state can (and does) impose levy “caps” that limit the levy from increasing by certain threshold percentages each year; this nuance is beyond the scope of this post but is still worth noting.

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The “levy” is the revenue line item in the local budget funded by property tax...there are three local levies: the school levy, the municipal levy, and the county levy.  The levy is often the primary funding source for local government, particularly the schools; by contrast, municipalities and counties have other revenue sources they can use including PILOT fees, court-related fees, and local revenues (e.g. parking related monies).  And the state can (and does) impose levy “caps” that limit the levy from increasing by certain threshold percentages each year; this nuance is beyond the scope of this post but is still worth noting.

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In late October 2022, Jersey City’s municipal council passed its annual 2022 budget with a $112 million increase to the city levy. This action capped a year of change in Jersey City’s property tax landscape; school tax and city tax have both increased. Residents saw these increases in their tax bills, but what can make this somewhat confusing is that the rates are not approved until the second half of the year. Thus, not only did tax expense going up, but it also increased in a lump-sum manner in the third and fourth quarters.

This post breaks aims to break it down for taxpayers.