The Kearny Town Council voted 5-4 in favor of a $99 million budget with a 14 percent tax increase, about six weeks after a similar budget with a 4.5 percent tax hike was voted down.
Mayor Carol Jean Doyle, along with Council members Marytrine De Castro, Jose Rodrigues, Fred Esteves, and Gerald Ficeto voted yes. Council members George Zapata, Dennis Solano, Eileen Eckel, and Stathis Theodoropoulos voted no.
This municipal spending plan shifts an additional $4 million ($44,550,000 compared to $48,550,000) to be raised from taxes.
“We’ve been loud and clear that Kearny’s finances are a ticking time bomb, and now it’s finally blowing up in taxpayers’ faces. At the eleventh hour, the mayor added millions of dollars to the budget, sticking Kearny families with a 14% tax hike. It’s a bait and switch. Residents packed the meeting and spoke out against this because this will be a huge burden on Kearny taxpayers, and they know it didn’t have to be this way,” Theodoropoulos said in a statmenrt…