NJ UFB – Series – Civic Parent

Jersey City’s 2021 Municipal Budget — A postscript…and some closing notes around transparency & process improvement

September 27, 2021September 27, 2021Brigid D'SouzaJersey City City Budget, NJ UFB - Series, NJ UFB-In Context

This is a quick update to my 2021 municipal budget series which I wrote this summer based on the budget introduced in June 2021. On August 31st 2021, the city council approved the budget in its final form with some changes. I wanted to briefly summarize those changes and also close the series with...

Jersey City 2021 Budget: Dig into budget using keyword search

July 8, 2021July 9, 2021Brigid D'SouzaJersey City City Budget, NJ UFB - Series, NJ UFB-In Context

This is part of a series on the 2021 city budget. See the full series here. The 2021 budget documents are online here. In this post I want to look at the proposed 2021 Jersey City budget using three questions as a launch point: How is the budget broken down? Has the budget ever...

Abatements 701 & The “User Friendly Budget”, part 5 – Abatements (with a Jersey City Focus)

December 3, 2020June 12, 2021Brigid D'SouzaJersey City City Budget, NJ UFB - Series, Tax Abatement Series

Note: the visualizations below are best viewed on a computer or tablet (vs a phone). Jersey City recently announced it was terminating an abatement on four buildings within the Beacon complex. The reason: “ownership defaulted on an obligation to retain and present employee records, city officials announced.” This is a good reminder that abatements...

The “User Friendly Budget”, Part 4b: Public Health & Public Safety (with Focus on Police) Spending in the Garden State

July 1, 2020June 12, 2021Brigid D'SouzaJersey City City Budget, NJ UFB - Series

This is a post in a series about NJ's User Friendly Budget. My intent is to share basic analysis and insights with community as a way to encourage taxpayers to engage with this document and learn more about local public finance. Read the other posts in this series here including how to access your town's UFB and...

The “User Friendly Budget”, Part 4a: View Your Town’s Structural Spending with the “UFB-3 Appropriations Summary” Data

June 23, 2020June 12, 2021Brigid D'SouzaData Visualizations, Jersey City City Budget, NJ UFB - Series

The “User Friendly Budget”, Part 3: the “Cover Page”, an Inventory of NJ’s 565 Municipalities, & An Overview of How UFB Data was Compiled

June 22, 2020June 12, 2021Brigid D'SouzaData Visualizations, Jersey City City Budget, NJ UFB - Series

This is a post in a series about NJ’s User Friendly Budget. My intent is to share basic analysis and insights with community as a way to encourage taxpayers to engage with this document and learn more about local public finance. Read the other posts in this series here including how to access your town’s...

The “User Friendly Budget”, Part 2: What’s in the User Friendly Budget?

June 15, 2020June 12, 2021Brigid D'SouzaJersey City City Budget, NJ UFB - Series

This is part of a series about the User Friendly Budget. This is a relatively short post to lay out what’s in the User Friendly Budget. I also want to share some of how I think this file can be used by taxpayers and advocates. As I explained in the first post in this...

The “User Friendly Budget”, Part 1: Intro to the Series & How to Access the UFB

June 15, 2020June 12, 2021Brigid D'SouzaData Visualizations, Jersey City City Budget, NJ UFB - Series

Five years ago, New Jersey began mandating that every municipality* in New Jersey file a “User Friendly Budget (UFB)” as part of the annual budgeting process. This file is “user friendly” for a few reasons: The data is aggregated in unique ways that help us see the structural nature of how the city both...

Tax Abatements 601: Brighter Sunshine Mandated for NJ Abatements

September 3, 2015June 12, 2021Brigid D'SouzaJersey City City Budget, NJ UFB - Series, Tax Abatement Series

Tax abatement reporting in Jersey City is finally getting more transparent. Two distinct authoritative bodies have mandated changes that require Jersey City (and other cities) to get onboard the transparency train. This news should come as a relief to taxpayers since abatements now constitute over 20% of Jersey City’s annual revenue yet have been sharply criticized by the NJ Comptroller as being too opaque...