KEARNY –
Getting a grip on a pattern of rising local property taxes will continue to be a challenge facing Kearny for 2017, Mayor Alberto Santos said at the town’s annual reorganization meeting last week.
While managing to keep municipal spending below the rate of inflation since becoming mayor 17 year ago, Santos said the town has been stymied by the state “siphoning off ever increasing amounts” of municipal energy tax revenue to balance its own budget.
As a result, the mayor said, the town’s cut of this revenue source has dropped from $20.9 million received in 2000 to $18.4 million currently.
“The [Town] Council and I will try to be vigilant with expenses and do our best to restrain property tax increases. But until the size of our state government is addressed and the state stops taking municipal moneys, this challenge will continue to be a difficult one,” the mayor said.
In 2016, Santos said, the town decreased municipal costs by about $500,000 over 2015 despite having faced a tripling of employee pension costs to more than $6 million and paying twice as much for employee health premium (more than $11 million), sewage treatment ($4.4 million) and garbage disposal ($2 million).
The town offset these additional expenses “through workforce reductions and, in some cases, reduced services,” he said.
On the plus side, Santos said the town saw the beginnings of several redevelopment projects from which new revenues will, ultimately, be realized.
“This past year we saw ribbon-cuttings for the first phase of the retail development on Passaic Ave. [for the BJ’s Wholesale Club] and the renovation of Building 78 at Kearny Point in South Kearny – an $18 million investment creating over 200,000 square feet of flex commercial and creative space [and] the first of six buildings proposed to be renovated at this site which, at completion, will total 2.2 million square feet. These projects will continue to grow, as will the Vermella housing developments on Bergen and Passaic Aves.”
In the past two years, Santos said, the town beefed up “depleted staffing levels” among its public safety component by hiring 37 firefighters and 21 police officers to fill vacancies created largely through retirements.
During that same period, the mayor said, the town saw the resurfacing of Veteran’s Memorial Field and the Branin (former Futsol) soccer field, construction of a dog park and renovations of the Hickory St. playground in the Fourth Ward and of the Pettigrew playground at Washington School in the First Ward.
Still, Santos noted, “the biggest challenge” for improving recreational infrastructure lies ahead with the re-do of Gunnel Oval by elevating the site, turfing all fields and installing a storm water drainage and pump system. The town is continuing to seek outside funding sources for this multi-million dollar project.
“We should make every effort to finalize designs and go out to bid in the next several months,” he said.
Another goal that the mayor has prioritized is a “long overdue” storm water pump station that can “alleviate flooding” east of Schuyler Ave. along Devon Terrace, Hoyt, Tappan and Duke Sts.
“The residents of this area have waited too long for relief,” Santos said. “We owe it to them to come up with solutions [for a project] that advances to design and bid this year.”
And, the mayor noted, 2017 will mark the town’s celebration of its Sesquicentennial anniversary with a series of public events slated to begin in late April with a band concert at Town Hall Park.
As the anniversary program unfolds, the town will pay tribute to its namesake, Maj. Gen. Philip Kearny, commander of the 1st New Jersey Brigade in the Civil War who was killed in action at the Battle of Chantilly and will recall the Kearny-based N.J. Home for Disabled Soldiers and Sailors that was built in 1888 to provide housing for veterans of the Civil War and Spanish-American War until its closure in 1932.
– Ron Leir
