Citizens, councilmembers, members of the judiciary, we allshare a common vision for Jersey City.
We want lower taxes, so that our city can become moreaffordable and prosperous.
We want our streets to be safe and clean, and the physicalenvironment of our city to be more beautiful and well developed. We want our city to meet the human and spiritual needs of ourresidents, from the educational and recreational needs of ourchildren, to the medical and cultural needs of our seniors.
And we want Jersey City to be a place where good jobs areabundant, so that every resident who is willing to work hard canearn a decent living.
We have a long, long way to go before this vision becomes areality. But I am here to report that in the last two years, wehave built a foundation for progress of which we can be justlyproud.
Progress Lowering Jersey City Taxes
Let me begin with a progress report on the city's finances.
In 1992, the year before I was elected, Jersey City was onthe brink of financial collapse. Property taxes during the priordecade had grown 14% a year, and many people could no longerafford to pay their tax bill. "For Sale" signs were everywhere. Businesses were closing. Our tax collection rate had fallen to78%, and instead of paying its bills with current taxes, the citywas borrowing from the future just to keep alive.
The amount we were borrowing was staggering. It is commonknowledge that the city bonded in 1991 for $128 million to helppay operating expenses and keep itself afloat. But untilrecently, few citizens, including me, knew that way back in 1989,the city had already begun, in a hidden way, to borrow over $30million a year to keep from going under.
How had the city accomplished this secret borrowing? In1989, two full years after the revaluation had been completed,commercial property tax assessments were arbitrarily doubledovernight.
Now, when you double someone's assessment, it obviouslydoubles the taxes they pay; and this enormous increasing ofcommercial property tax assessments -- two years after the StockMarket Crash had actually sent real estate prices plummeting --did just what it was supposed to do: it increased city revenues. To cite the numbers, almost $1 billion in phantom ratables werecreated; and these improper over-assessments generated over $30million per year in additional property tax revenues for the city,county, and school system.
It's nice that the city was able to get an additional $30million a year in property taxes. And politically, it was nicethat all of the extra money was coming from businesses, nothomeowners. But the problem with what the city did is that it wasand is illegal, and we, my friends, are paying dearly for it now.
The courts have been reducing these improper over-assessments, and as a result, the city is not onlylosing theextra $30 million per year it was receiving, but is also having torefund all of the excess taxes that were collected -- since wayback in 1989 -- plus interest! The financial hit to the city addsup to almost $100 million in refunds that we are having to paynow, for money which the city already spent years ago.
That's why City Hall insiders considered the city's financialsituation in late 1992 impossible. 1992 property taxes werealready outrageously high, despite have been artificially helddown by all of this improper borrowing. City Hall insiders knewthat by the time I got into office, there was not going to be anyborrowed money left to subsidize the tax levy; rather, all wewould inherit were huge amounts of debt that had to be repaid. Itmade for an ugly picture, and most insiders presumed that the citywould either have to increase taxes dramatically or file forimmediate bankruptcy.
But that's not what we did. We didn't hike taxes, and wedidn't go bankrupt. We rolled up our sleeves and went to work!
With our nationally acclaimed bulk lien sale, we increasedthe city's tax collection rate from 78%, where it stood when I waselected, to 94% today -- its highest level in forty years!
We audited every major tax abatement, and increased thepayments we receive from developers by almost 50%!
We stream-lined our workforce -- for the most part throughattrition, with very few lay-offs -- and saved enormously throughbidding out contracts that had never been bid out before.
And we became the first governmental entity in the country toinstitute Medical Savings Accounts, which saves us on the cost ofproviding health care to our employees, even while improving theircoverage. Congress is about to follow our example and offerMedical Savings Accounts to all federal employees. It makes mevery proud that we blazed a trail which now the entire country ispursuing to control health care costs.
These several actions allowed us, in just two short years, tocut Jersey City's tax levy by almost a third, and were it not forthe fact that we are now having to pay out that $100 million inrefunds from the 1989 over-assessments, these actions would havebeen enough for us to maintain our massive tax cut. As it is,because we did start much more deeply in debt than I had everimagined, we have only been able to hold the city's tax levy down9% from where it was before I was elected. So, admittedly, we cuttaxes too rapidly in 1993 and 1994. But we have made thenecessary adjustments now, and unless the state or federalgovernment slash their current aid levels, we presently have thepower to ensure city property tax cuts this year, next year, andwell into the foreseeable future!
Jersey City is no longer on the brink of bankruptcy. Rather,even though we started in a deeper hole than any other city in NewJersey, we are now doing financially better than any other city inNew Jersey.
Two months ago, I submitted a fiscal year 1996 budget inwhich the city tax levy is one million dollars less than our 1995levy, and is almost $9 million less than it was when I took officein 1992. This is the fourth straight budget I have submitted inwhich the city tax levy has been less than when I started.
We are the only city in Hudson County, and, I think theentire state of New Jersey, where for four straight years the citytax levy has been lower than its 1992 level. The averagemunicipal tax levy increase during this time in the rest of HudsonCounty has been 30%. That's quite a contrast: our city tax levyhas been cut, while in the rest of Hudson County, tax levies havesky-rocketed.
Now, I know that Freeholder Hank Gallo has sent out letterstrying to make you believe that we have actually increased thecity controlled portion of your property tax bill, so I thought wemight want to look at the real-life experience of an averageJersey City taxpayer to settle the question once and for all. In1992, the year before I was elected, the city property tax bill onthe house in which Freeholder Hank Gallo lives was $1,687. In1993, the first year after I was elected, his family's cityproperty taxes were cut by $194. In 1994, we cut taxes again, andsaved his family $572. This year, Hank's family saved anadditional $2 over what it was paying the city in 1992. Add itup, and already in my first three full years, we saved Hank Gallo$768 over what he would have paid to the city if property taxeshad been frozen at their '92 level.
The property taxes paid on Hank Gallo's home to the countyare another story; they've been increased since 1992. Hank Gallomight like to deny this, but the truth is revealed by the officialtax records -- which are public documents. Instead of sending outletters trying to confuse the public, I think Hank Gallo shouldwrite a letter thanking our Jersey City Council and me for savinghim money, and I think he and his cohorts on the County Board ofFreeholders should get to work on cutting County spending andtaxes.
In fact, let's contrast our Jersey City record on taxes withCounty Executive Bob Janiszewski's, and also with the schoolsystem's record since the state took control. Since BobJaniszewski has been in office, the county property tax levy hasbeen increased $46 million, even though the state now pays formany functions that were formerly covered by the county. Everysingle year that I've been in office, city property taxes havebeen lower than they were before I was elected. Every single yearthat Bob Janiszewski has been in office, county property taxeshave been higher than they were before he was elected. That'swhat he's done for the people of Hudson County -- he's raisedtheir taxes!
When you look at the school system, it's even worse. Theschool portion of our property tax rate has increased 57% sincethe state came in and took control, despite the fact that theschool district has been given almost $100 million more in stateaid since the takeover.
One hundred million dollars in extra state aid is a hugeamount. To give you a sense how huge, if the city received anextra $100 million in state aid, I would be able to wipe out theentire city portion of your property tax bill, and still haveenough cash left over to send every Jersey City homeowner around$300 in cash. Instead of you having to pay city taxes, the citywould be able to send you money. But the state administeredschool district has gobbled up all of this extra state aid, andhas increased your local property taxes by $32 million to boot.
What do we have to show for it? Reading scores in our publicschools are down since the state took control, and the incidenceof violence in our public schools has soared 113%! Now you knowwhy I spend so much time fighting to have the state implement realeducation reform. Our children need a chance, and our taxpayersneed a break!
For four straight years, the city portion of your propertytax bill has been lower than it was before I took office. Butbecause of county and school district property tax increases, yourtotal property tax bill is up. We in city government cannotcontrol what the county and the school district do, but we canspeak out against their tax increases -- and we must!
We also have to speak out against the excessive borrowing ofthe county and the school district, because today's borrowing willturn into tax increases tomorrow when the borrowed money has to bepaid off. At the city level of government, we have essentiallyfrozen the total amount of bonds outstanding. But since BobJaniszewski has been in office, the county's bonded indebtednesshas increased by almost 300% -- 300%! And since the state tookcontrol of our school system, the school district's bondedindebtedness has increased 39%. Moreover, just one month ago theschool district announced that it wants to borrow another $270million. This soaring county and school district borrowing willcause you massive future tax increases. It must be stopped!
I've called for a freeze on the total amount of county andschool district debt outstanding, for at least a period of severalyears. When their old debt comes due, they can roll it over. Butthey must not increase their total indebtedness. Our taxpayersjust can't bear the extra burden; and they shouldn't have to,because it should be possible for the county and the schooldistrict to improve public services even while reducing spending.
That's what we have done here at the city level ofgovernment. We have reduced total city spending, and yet at thesame time, we are providing improved public services.
Progress Improving Jersey City's Physical Environment
I'd like to turn now to a discussion of how, even though weare spending less, we have made progress improving Jersey City'sphysical environment, including making our streets safer andcleaner.
I want to begin by noting that we have kept our promise toput more police officers on the street. When I was first electedin 1992, we had a police force of 842 officers. Today we have 853police officers. In 1992, only 564 police officers worked instreet patrol. Today 665 of our police officers are on streetpatrol. That's an increase of over 100 officers. In 1992, policeofficers worked only 188 days a year, on average. Today they work202 days a year, in connection with a work schedule which providesthe greatest continuity of supervision possible under theircontract. So we have hired more officers, put a higher percentageon the streets, increased the number of days they work, andimproved the continuity of police supervision -- all whiledecreasing total city spending!
There are a lot of additional changes which we are going tohave to make if we want to improve our crime fightingeffectiveness, and you can be sure that we are going to press onand make them. In the end, our goal is to have a PoliceDepartment which is more effective, more disciplined, morecourteous, and more ethnically representative of our people. AndI am not going to let anyone stand in the way of my making thesenecessary changes -- not the police union, and not the people whopicket in front of my home. No one is going to be discriminatedagainst by this administration, but neither is anyone going to betreated special because of the color of their skin.
Now, in addition to improving the effectiveness of our policedepartment, establishing a sense of order in our streets alsorequires that we clean our streets, and that we turn our emptylots into housing or commercial space, so that our city no longerlooks so disheveled and disorderly.
Accordingly, we are doing more to clean our streets todaythan ever in recent decades. We still have mechanical streetsweepers, working as they always have. But we also have prisonersfrom the Kearny jail picking up litter every day. We haveOccupational Center workers, and city workfare workers, cleaningour streets with the Jersey City Litter Patrol. We have newBusiness Improvement Districts along Central Avenue and at JournalSquare, which have already made those shopping districts cleaner. And we are presently working, one by one, to organize BusinessImprovement Districts and Neighborhood Improvement Districts allthroughout the city, so that all of our streets become cleaner andmore orderly.
All over the city, ruble strewn lots are being turned intobrand new housing. Five years ago, the city built 70 units of newhousing. This year, we will build three times as much -- almostall of it, non-tax abated! The year before we were elected, therewas almost no private housing construction in Jersey City. By theend of this year there will have been over a thousand new unitsbuilt or announced: with Franklin Park, Avalon Cove, a secondPortside Tower, and new construction at Newport, only the mostdramatic examples. By the end of this year, almost every lotwhich was owned by the city when I was first elected will havebeen redeveloped.
Abandoned buildings are another blight that we are dealingwith. They are much harder to redevelop than empty lots, but weare committed to meeting the challenge. We have formed the newBureau of Abandoned Buildings as an inter-departmental taskforceto get abandoned buildings renovated and back onto the tax roles. We have had some successes already, and I am particularly proudthat in some instances we have been able to get local communityorganizations to serve as the re-developer of abandoned buildingsin their neighborhood, with local contractors and local laborersdoing the work. Putting all these pieces together has allowed usto benefit not just that those who live in the neighborhood of theredeveloped building, and not just those who need housing, butalso many local residents who were in need of jobs. Thesesuccesses represent real and significant progress, but they arenot the end of the story.
We have also improved sidewalks and streets throughout thecity. In fact, soon we will finally begin repaving the MonmouthStreet and Coles Street access roads to Hoboken. You know theroads I am talking about, passing under the Turnpike where itdescends towards the Holland Tunnel. These roads have been adisgrace for decades. We are set to fix them up!
When you drive into Jersey City, your first impression is nolonger going to be that it's a mess. Instead, the streets aregoing to be decently paved. There are going to be beautiful signswelcoming you to "Jersey City: America's Golden Door." Alongmajor entrance roads, like Christopher Columbus Drive and GarfieldAvenue, you are going to be greeted by huge, lovely murals whichlet you know that you are in a community brimming with artistictalent and proud of his cultural and ethnic diversity.
In fact, you won't even have to be driving. You'll be ableto travel from and back to Jersey City using one of our many newferries, or the new light rail system that is going to be built,or one of the many buses servicing the renovated transportationcenters that we are building at Exchange Place, Journal Square,and the new Hub at Martin Luther King Drive.
When you step out you will be able to walk along our expandedWaterfront Walkway, where a new section will be completed shortlywithin the Newport and Hudson Exchange tracts. Or, you will beable to enjoy our soon to be rebuilt inner-city businessdistricts, where we have already initiated our facade restorationprogram to brighten up the store fronts of scores of dingycommercial buildings.
Maybe you don't know it, but by the Spring of next year weare going to begin rebuilding all of Journal Square. JournalSquare is the heart not only of Jersey City, but of Hudson County. It is a disgrace that it has been allowed to deteriorate so much. It should have been rebuilt twenty years ago, but Administrationafter Administration did nothing. This coming Spring, we aregoing to break ground on a $4.0 million reconstruction of theSquare that will restore its beauty and grandeur. Together withthe newly enhanced security and sanitation services we have put inplace in the Journal Square Business Improvement District, theresult is going to be a Square that is beautiful, safe, and clean-- and that will be kept beautiful, safe, and clean.
The same holds true for the new Hub we are building at MartinLuther King Drive and Virginia Avenue. When I campaigned foroffice, I said I was going to redevelop Martin Luther King Drive -- and that I was going to do it withthe full input andparticipation of the community, so that the redevelopment trulybenefitted the local neighborhoods. I am keeping my promises. The city recently won a national award for the amount of communityparticipation it brought into the MLK planning process; and now,to make sure that our ambitious plans are carried through tocompletion, my administration has committed $16 million for thefirst phase of redevelopment.
That's real commitment, not just talk, and it stands out insharp contrast to the records of some of those who politicallyopposed us. They let the Drive deteriorate. We are building itup. All they know is how to tear down people's reputations. Weare trying to lift up not only buildings, but the spirit of acommunity!
Chambre Vilamoura City Hall is itself an example of the new pride and spiritsweeping Jersey City. The roof of City Hall burned down in 1979,and for sixteen years, the wreckage was left to stand as a symbolof Jersey City's decline and despair. Now our roof has finallybeen repaired, and like the wall which Ezra rebuilt aroundJerusalem, it stands as a symbol of faith in our city's future.
My critics will say that some of the projects I've mentionedwere planned before I was elected. But the fact is that the planssat on the shelf. Every dollar that we have spent on theseprojects in the last two and a half years has been spent becausewe made the commitment. We spent the money. We moved beyond talkand gave these projects life.
Look at the city's parks. By the end of my term in 1997,nearly every city park will have been renovated, including,finally, Country Village Park, where, for years, a dangerous steelplate in centerfield has been a testament of disregard for ourchildren. We'll be rebuilding that park, and we're going to takethat steel plate away, so that our children can finally have asafe place to play. Meanwhile, all over the city, we are takingempty lots and constructing brand new pocket parks forneighborhood enjoyment.
Even that's not all. We have constructed new athleticfields, so that we can accommodate more sports leagues for bothJersey City's children and its adults, and for its women's leaguesas well as its men's. And we will soon, finally, have a newhockey rink at Pershing Field; while at Pershing Field, andelsewhere, we are also constructing brand new bocci ball courts.
Listen, we still have a long, long way to go to make ourstreets safe and clean, and make our physical environmentbeautiful and vibrant. But we've made a good start in bringingJersey City back. And remember, we have done all of this whilespending less, and taxing less, than our predecessors. We havehad a very tight financial situation, but we are stretching yourtax dollars to the limit.
Progress Meeting the Human Needs of Jersey City's People
Of course, man does not live by bread alone. It is not justthe material improvement of our city's physical environment forwhich we must strive. We must also be concerned with the humandevelopment of our residents. And so I will now report on theprogress we have made improving educational and recreationalprograms for our children, improving services for our seniorcitizens, and improving the various programs we run to help ourpoor.
I'll be the first to acknowledge that the many educationalreforms I have proposed have not yet been passed into law by thestate legislature. But I am not going to surrender. I am goingto keep pushing for educational reform, because our publiceducation system is not sufficiently helping our children, evenwhile its cost is overwhelming our taxpayers. School taxes keepgoing up, and our children's test scores keep going down. It'sintolerable. But the good news is that change is coming!
The State Department of Education is moving on recommendations made by the Governor, myself, and others, torefocus school accountability away from regulation and towardsresults.
Meanwhile, the charter school proposals that I drafted toreform our public school system have been incorporated into a billpassed by the New Jersey Senate Education Committee to help all ofNew Jersey's public schools. If this Senate bill becomes law, itwill go a long way toward fixing our public school system.
My private school voucher proposal has not been passed by thelegislature yet, but commission hearings are being held on myproposal, and I am convinced that it will pass eventually -- ifnot this year, then within the next several.
When all three elements of my education plan have been passedby the state legislature, educational opportunity for ALL of ourchildren in Jersey City will finally be a reality!
Of course, our children's day does not end at 3:00 p.m., eventhough the school day does. That is why I created the newDepartment of Recreation and Cultural Affairs, and assigned it themission of getting our schools open for after-hours tutoring andrecreation. The Department has been hard at work, and I ampleased to report to you that by the end of this current fiscalyear, with the support of Superintendent Frank Sinatra, we willhave numerous public schools open from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. foracademic tutoring and organized recreation. To complement theseafter-school programs, we have also expanded the schedule of citysponsored children's events, leagues, arts programs and sportsclinics.
And since our children are not the only one's in need ofrecreation, the city is now also coordinating, or providinglogistical support for, a record number of adult athletic leagues,block parties, festivals, concerts, and art shows throughout everyWard.
There's a lot that we are doing which you may not know about. We have provided financial support for the renovation of a numberof community spaces, like the Barrow Mansion. We are finalizingpreparations to construct a new city owned community center onMartin Luther King Drive. We are working to open a new culturalarts center, managed by a private developer, in Harsimus Cove. Weare examining the possibility of constructing a private or statemanaged amphitheater in Liberty State Park, or by Caven Point. Weare working hard to restore the Loews. And we have providedsignificant financial support for the construction of a new JerseyCity Museum.
Jersey City is becoming a Mecca for artists, and I amconvinced that these investments in arts venues will pay hugeeconomic dividends for us in the future, even while adding to ourcultural life today.
All of these new adult recreational and culturalopportunities should particularly benefit our senior citizens, butthis is not all that we are doing to help our seniors. We arealso in the process of building an enormous amount of new seniorcitizen housing: Wittenberg Manor, the Jewish Home, the FairmountHotel, Padua House, and the Orchard Street home, just to name afew. We have also expanded senior health related services,including a brand new phone contact system for shut-ins. Seniortransportation services are being expanded through increasing thenumber of city buses dedicated to senior transport, and throughtougher enforcement of taxi discounts. Meanwhile, we are lobbyingin Trenton for legislation which mandates that all bus companies,private as well as public, offer special senior citizen discounts,24 hours a day.
These improvements in service make us proud, but they areonly the beginning. Our Director of Senior Citizen Affairs, JoanYoung, is working to develop a whole slew of additional newprograms. So stay tuned, there's more to come.
In the meanwhile, let me address the service improvementsthat we have directed at those residents who, for whatever reason,find themselves in tough economic circumstances.
We have increased Jersey City's support for private foodpantries like Let's Celebrate, and of the homeless shelter at St.Lucy's. We have expanded our anti-drug education programs, andtreatment programs. And we have also worked hard to improve andexpand our job training and job placement services.
The new Office of Employment and Training, run by Ben Lopez,is doing a superior job. To bolster its efforts further, we aretoughening enforcement of the city's first source agreements withdevelopers, so that a greater percentage of the new jobs that cometo Jersey City will go to Jersey City residents.
That said, it is time to talk about public assistance. Theobvious goal of government policy should be to move citizens fromwelfare dependence to work, and that's what we have been doing. In relation to our general assistance programs, we have reducedfraud, mandated work in exchange for benefits where possible, andimproved our private sector job placement programs, as I justmentioned. As a result, since 1992, the number of residents ongeneral assistance has declined from 2,106 a month to 1,331. Thishuge reduction is something we can be proud of, because whensomeone gets a paycheck instead of a general assistance check, itnot only saves you money, it lifts their spirit as well.
I have drafted A Blueprint For Economic Justice, which I havehad the opportunity to present both to various cabinet secretariesin the Clinton Administration and to various Republican leaders inCongress. The Blueprint outlines federal welfare and tax lawchanges which together would enable us to ensure that everyAmerican who is willing to work would be able to find a job, thatevery person who takes a job would be able to earn a decentliving, and that every person who works hard to increase familyincome, would be benefitted for doing so, and would not, as iscurrently the case, be penalized through the loss of benefits.
In Hudson County alone, our federal and state governmentsspend hundreds of millions of dollars a year for food, housing,health care, and cash benefits to welfare families. We should beallowed to use this money to give people paychecks for work,instead of being forced by federal and state regulations to usethat money to pay welfare to people who do not work. This wouldallow us to lift our poorest citizens out of the despair ofwelfare dependence, and significantly improve public services inJersey City, using these federal and state dollars, and withouthaving to raise local property taxes one cent.
That's why it angers me that our County Executive, BobJaniszewski, recently went to Washington to say that he wants tokeep welfare just the way it is. This is a scandal. Today'swelfare system does not work, and it is time to fix it!
Progress Attracting Jobs to Jersey City
This speech has been a bit long, but before I close, I wouldlike to give you one final progress report -- this one on jobgrowth. It shouldn't surprise anyone that when you cut taxes, yetat the same time improve services and a city's quality of life,new jobs are attracted. But who could ever have predicted theabsolute boom in job growth that Jersey City is enjoying!
We are leading the cities not just of New Jersey, but of theentire North East in percentage job growth. This boom in jobs inJersey City has not just been limited to service sector jobs onthe waterfront. We are also experiencing a boom in construction,both housing and commercial. Manufacturing jobs are coming backto Jersey City, as is the case with the Daily News moving itsprinting operations here, and with Alpha Metals expanding itsoperations in Jersey City. New retail jobs have also beencreated, for example at B.J.'s on the waterfront, and alongCentral Avenue in the Heights, where eight new retailers havefilled what had been empty stores. New distribution operations,such as Sysco's and Budweiser's, are coming here, taking space inour industrial parks.
In fact, as a result of our vibrant economic growth, JerseyCity will probably soon become New Jersey's largest city,surpassing Newark.
Palma de Mallorca accommodation For Jersey City's unemployed, this job growth has been morethan academic. State labor statistics demonstrate that since thisCouncil and I were elected, thousands of additional Jersey Cityresidents have gotten jobs, and thousands less are now unemployed. There is nothing of which I am more proud than the fact that manyJersey City residents who were in poverty have been able to escapebecause we have brought jobs back to Jersey City!
Conclusion
There you have it. We have cut city spending and taxes, yeteven as we have done so, we have increased the number of policeofficers on our streets and improved most city services. Notsurprisingly, this has attracted job growth, providing new hopefor Jersey City's future.
We have not yet received the state's permission to implementthe school reforms I've proposed, and as a result, the cost of ourschool system is still soaring, even as our children's test scorescontinue to flag. But we haven't given up the fight for our kids,and we won't. We will eventually win our battle for educationreform, and those who have been fighting to preserve the statusquo will lose -- because true educational opportunity for ourchildren cannot be denied forever!
We have a lot of work to do to make Jersey City fully matchour vision, but we have turned the financial morass we inheritedinto a firm foundation for future growth. We have, in fact,already passed through the shadowy valley, and as we look ahead,the future for Jersey City is bright.
So I ask all of you listening today to stick with Jersey Cityand not lose hope in our common vision for the future. The workbefore us is hard, but it would be a sin to give up on thisstruggle as long as one Jersey City resident is denied theopportunity and quality of life which should be the birthright ofevery American.
We must run with perseverance this race that is set beforeus, for it is what we have been given to do.
God is watching over us, people. Let us be faithful to Hiscall, and know that we, and all of the people of Jersey City, arein His hands.
And as we leave from this place tonight, let the word goforth that Jersey City is coming back. It is the place to live,and it is the place to build a business!
God bless you all!