Hoboken's County Tax Levy Trimmed $1.4 Million After Public Budget Hearings

City residents will pay slightly less in county taxes than had initially been proposed by the Hudson County Board of Chosen Freeholders after public budget hearings held last week in Hoboken and Secaucus proved effective in trimming county expenses.

The hearings, proposed as a vehicle for residents to comment and ask questions about the county budget, yielded $3.5 million in budget cuts and a $4.5 million reduction in the Open Space tax levy — enough to meet the Open Space debt service, but not sufficient to fund any new open space projects.

The $495 million county budget adopted Thursday reduces what would have been a 4.39 percent tax increase to 3.17 percent, county spokesman Jim Kennelly said in a statement.

Mayor Dawn Zimmer, who pushed for the county budget hearings along with neighboring mayors in Secaucus and Weehawken, said she was pleased with the outcome.

"This agreement represents an excellent starting point for what must be an ongoing process of stabilizing our county tax levy, with the goal of having it rise no faster than the rate of inflation," Zimmer said in a statement.

As a result of the reductions, Hoboken will save $1.4 million over the originally proposed county budget, but still faces an 8.8 percent county tax increase over last year.

Under the freeholders' original budget, Hobokenites would have paid 10 percent more in county taxes, an amount Councilman David Mello called, "unconscionable," at least week's city council meeting.

"The county looks at Hoboken like we're their piggy bank," he said.