Jersey City’s 2021 Municipal Budget — A postscript…and some closing notes around transparency & process improvement
This is a quick update to my 2021 municipal budget series which I wrote this summer based on the budget ...
Improving accountability and transparency for Jersey City Public Schools
In 2021 Jersey City Public Schools fully funded its schools for the first time in over a decade. Reasonable questions ...
Transparency & Better Communications Needed for Jersey City Public Schools
The Board of Education (BOE) nearly shut down “remote” public comment last week and it’s worth explaining what happened, simply ...
Tax Abatements 401: The Transparency Issue
In his 2010 report, “A Programmatic Examination of Tax Abatements,” NJ Comptroller A. Matthew Boxer highlighted numerous weaknesses with abatements. ...
Tax Base Trade-Offs: Policy Trade-Offs with Abatements (UFB-5 and UFB-6)
This post is part of a Civic Parent’s series, Take Your Seat at the Table: A Taxpayer’s Guide to Decoding ...
Budget Balancing Act – What “Structural Imbalance” Points on UFB Tab “4”
This post is part of a Civic Parent’s series, Take Your Seat at the Table: A Taxpayer’s Guide to Decoding Your ...
Where the Money Goes: Local Government is Mostly People Cost
This post is part of a Civic Parent’s series, Take Your Seat at the Table: A Taxpayer’s Guide to Decoding Your ...
Following the Money: Where the City Gets Its Income (with Google Worksheet Tool)
This post is part of a Civic Parent’s series, Take Your Seat at the Table: A Taxpayer’s Guide to Decoding ...
You Belong Here: Let’s Review How Your Tax Bill Connects to the Municipal Budget
This post is part of a Civic Parent’s series, Take Your Seat at the Table: A Taxpayer’s Guide to Demystifying ...
Welcome, Settle In. Let’s Go Over How to Find and Open Your City’s Budget
This post is part of a Civic Parent’s series, Take Your Seat at the Table: A Taxpayer’s Guide to Decoding ...
Take Your Seat at the Table: A Taxpayer’s Guide to Demystifying Your Municipal Budget
Welcome to Civic Parent’s newest series: Take Your Seat at the Table: A Taxpayer’s Guide to Demystifying Your Municipal Budget ...
Jersey City Public Schools – Insights re: the 2025/26 Board of Ed Budget
The Board of Education's budget was confusing to the public despite several notable updates to the funding paradigm. My friend ...
The “User Friendly Budget,” part 7: What is the mix of residential vs. business property in my town? (UFB-5)
Update, Fall 2025: I’ve got a new series revisiting the User Friendly Budget. Take your seat at the table and ...
The “User Friendly Budget,” part 6: What drives my property tax bill? (UFB, Page 1)
Update, Fall 2025: I’ve got a new series revisiting the User Friendly Budget. Take your seat at the table and ...
The “User Friendly Budget”, part 5 & Tax Abatements 701 – Abatement disclosures in the UFB
Update, Fall 2025: I’ve got a new series revisiting the User Friendly Budget. Take your seat at the table and ...
Following the Money: Where the City Gets Its Income (with Google Worksheet Tool)
This post is part of a Civic Parent’s series, Take Your Seat at the Table: A Taxpayer’s Guide to Decoding ...
Jersey City Public Schools – 2025/26 Budget Insights (Focus on Revenues)
This is a follow-up to a previous post about the 2025/26 schools budget about Jersey City’s 2025/26 schools budget which ...
The local levy as connection between taxpayer and the local budget
This is part of a 2023 series about property tax in NJ. View the series landing page here. An upfront ...
Jersey City’s 2019/20 Proposed Budget: Visualized Revenues
Every municipality is funded by a mix of income streams, including: Property taxes (everyone pays property tax...you either pay it ...
Budget Balancing Act – What “Structural Imbalance” Points on UFB Tab “4”
This post is part of a Civic Parent’s series, Take Your Seat at the Table: A Taxpayer’s Guide to Decoding Your ...
Take Your Seat at the Table: A Taxpayer’s Guide to Demystifying Your Municipal Budget
Welcome to Civic Parent’s newest series: Take Your Seat at the Table: A Taxpayer’s Guide to Demystifying Your Municipal Budget ...
Jersey City Public Schools – Insights re: the 2025/26 Board of Ed Budget
The Board of Education's budget was confusing to the public despite several notable updates to the funding paradigm. My friend ...
Demystifying Jersey City’s $1 billion budget for JCPS high schoolers
I recently met with high school student leaders in Jersey City Public Schools who are sharing stories of the conditions ...
Jersey City Municipal Budgets: a high level visual review of 2015 through 2023
I was curious about Jersey City’s budgetary trends and so created a few high level visuals that I am sharing ...
Jersey City Budgets & the Connection to Property Tax Expense (an interactive teaching visual)
This is part of a series about the 2022 Jersey City budget. To see the full series, click here. For ...
Jersey City 2021 Budget: A focus on expense (including: structural expense is up $13 million this year)
This is part of a series on the 2021 city budget. The spirit of this series is: I’m interested in unpacking ...
Jersey City School Tax Expense Calculator for 2020/21 School Funding Year
I am part of the education team with Jersey City Together and in May 2020 we created a school tax ...
Jersey City’s 2019/20 Proposed Budget: Visualized APPROPRIATIONS (Expenses)
Every municipality must pay for services that are then consumed by its residents. These services include: Police force (eg the ...