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NJ User Friendly Budget
The User Friendly Budget ("UFB" for short) is a mandatory budget format that each municipality (all 565 of them!) is required to submit to NJ each year. This is a powerful document, standardized in form and rich with public data, that allows for both time-series and comparative analysis among towns and cities throughout the Garden State, from 2015 onward.
On January 26th, 2022 I joined Montclair Councilor-at-large Peter Yacobellis for a zoom webinar about the Montclair municipal (aka town) ...
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For the past few months I’ve been working with a fantastic group of advocates in Montclair to learn more about ...
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This is an update to my “User Friendly Budget” series with a focus on Montclair. Your town’s user friendly budget ...
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This is an update to my “User Friendly Budget” series with a focus on Montclair. Your town’s user friendly budget must be ...
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This is a quick update to my 2021 municipal budget series which I wrote this summer based on the budget ...
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This is part of a series on the 2021 city budget. See the full series here. The 2021 budget documents ...
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Note: the visualizations below are best viewed on a computer or tablet (vs a phone). Jersey City recently announced it ...
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This is a post in a series about NJ's User Friendly Budget. My intent is to share basic analysis and ...
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This is a post in a series about NJ's User Friendly Budget. My intent is to share basic analysis and ...
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This is a post in a series about NJ’s User Friendly Budget. My intent is to share basic analysis and ...
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This is part of a series about the User Friendly Budget. This is a relatively short post to lay out ...
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Five years ago, New Jersey began mandating that every municipality* in New Jersey file a “User Friendly Budget (UFB)” as ...
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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) ...
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Jersey City PILOTs Rob Funding from the School System
A strong public school system is essential bedrock to a healthy community. Yet in Jersey City, our bedrock is threatened by a fiscal ...
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Updated: Jersey City Abatements from 2016 User Friendly Budget. Mapped by Project Type & Ward.
If you are new to the topic of abatements, I recommend my tax abatement series here including my 2015 article,”Jersey City PILOTs ...
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How does Jersey City Spend Its Money? A Data Visualization of Budgets from 2015-2018
As we look towards the coming weeks and months, two local governing bodies are undergoing a public budgeting process: The ...
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Abatements 801: We need better abatement disclosures in NJ to show impact on public schools
This is post included in both my abatement series and a series about the User Friendly Budget in NJ. We ...
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Jersey City 2021 Budget: Dig into budget using keyword search
This is part of a series on the 2021 city budget. See the full series here. The 2021 budget documents ...
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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 ...
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Let’s get civic, Montclair!
I’m excited to share that I’m currently working with a team of civic advocates in Montclair to help grow awareness ...
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What drives my property tax bill? (UFB, Page 1)
This is an update to my “User Friendly Budget” series with a focus on Montclair. Your town’s user friendly budget must be ...
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What is the mix of residential vs. business property in my town? (UFB-5)
This is an update to my “User Friendly Budget” series with a focus on Montclair. Your town’s user friendly budget ...
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Montclair City Budgets: high-level, 6-year review
For the past few months I’ve been working with a fantastic group of advocates in Montclair to learn more about ...
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Understanding Montclair’s Municipal Budget: A Webinar & Teaching to Empower Taxpayers to “Follow the Public Money”
On January 26th, 2022 I joined Montclair Councilor-at-large Peter Yacobellis for a zoom webinar about the Montclair municipal (aka town) ...
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