Posted by Unknown Poster on July 02, 2003 at 18:59:13:
In Reply to: HCDO EXEC DEGISE RAISES COUNTY TAXES posted by Steven Glazer UTN NEWS on July 01, 2003 at 19:01:31:
: DeGise should hire Kabili Tayari to do his budget. He rules! : : Jersey City—Despite earlier statements to the contrary in late March and April, Hudson County Democratic Organization County Executive Tom DeGise revealed a final budget that will raise taxes throughout Hudson County. The biggest part of the increase will fall on Jersey City and Hoboken. Bill O’Dea was the lone Independent Freeholder to vote no on the measure. All other HCDO Freeholders approved and passed the measure despite pleas from O’Dea and prospective Assembly Lou Manzo to wait and explore ways to avoid the increase. HCDO Freeholder Nidia Davila Colon, hospitalized after testimony in her corruption trial, did not attend. : : Kabili Tayari, Jersey City NAACP president said that the final budget was very different than the preliminary plan first presented. “You must have known then what the projections were, ” Tayari said. The increase was first revealed only one week after the primary election in which DeGise ran and won. Freeholder Bill O’Dea produced quick statistics to determine the breakdown of the tax increase by each of the 12 municipalities through the County, which O’Dea labeled “VooDoo Economics” : East Newark ($10,000) Guttenburg $220,000, Secaucus, $250,000, West New York, $550,000, Harrison $600,000, Kearny$620,000, Union City $800,000 Weehawken, $900,000 Bayonne, $1,500,000, Hoboken $1,800,000 $1,900,000 and Jersey City $6,200,000. The total of DeGise’s “stealth” tax increase is $15,340,000 with the largest single increase by far, falling on Jersey City. : Union City Mayor, and HCDO Mayor Freeholder Brian Stack, himself caught on the horns of a dilemma could be seen to stiffen visibly in his seat when O’Dea read out the impact on each towns, including the $800,000 cost to Union City. HCDO Freeholder Maurice Fitzgibbons complained bitterly and at length that Hoboken already was bearing an unfair share of costs but then voted with the HCDO majority to approve the budget, instead of delaying until some remedy might be found as O’Dea suggested. : Louis Manzo, recently triumphant in the primary for 31st District Assembly said that “This budget deprives residents of Jersey City of due process.” :
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