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: Perth Amboy told to take $8 million from spending plan
: Thursday, May 18, 2006
: BY SUE EPSTEIN
: Star-Ledger Staff 
: With the end of Perth Amboy's fiscal year quickly approaching, the state has ordered the city to remove $8 million in proposed revenues from its budget before it adopts the $58 million spending plan. 

: The order from Susan Jaco bucci, director of the Division of Local Government Services, could force a massive tax hike to cover the shortfall in revenue, one city councilman said. 

: Perth Amboy's business administrator, Don Perlee, was not available for comment yesterday and Mayor Joseph Vas, a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the 13th Congressional District seat in the June 6 primary, could not be reached for comment. 

: The owner of a home assessed at the city average of $115,000 is already facing a $126 tax hike, but Councilman David Szylagyi said that is a best-case scenario at this point. Szilagyi said last month if the revenues weren't allowed, homeowners may be looking at a $300 tax increase. 

: "If this is approved by the end of the year (the budget), we're going to have to live with a hefty tax increase," Szylagyi said. 

: Szylagyi, who was a supporter of Vas until this year, has become a critic, recently announcing his endorsement for Vas's opponent in the congressional race, Assemblyman Albio Sires, who is also the mayor of West New York. 

: In a letter sent to Vas and members of the city council yesterday, Jacobucci said the city did not provide any documentation to the state to support $8 million in revenues in its budget. 

: Among the revenue items not supported by documentation are $4 million in projected grants and fees the city said it would obtain for the public pool its building in the new municipal complex now under construction, $1 million in funds ex pected for reimbursement from patients' insurance companies for ambulance and emergency services, and $3 million for leasing its water utility. 

: Jacobucci said she requested the required documentation be submitted to her office within 15 business days of her letter. 

: "We have not heard nor received anything from the city in response to the letter and the time for submission of contracts and other documentation requested by our examiner has lapsed," Jaco bucci said. "The time for adoption of your 2006 budget has exceeded any reasonable delay." 

: She said once her office receives the budget amendment eliminating the undocumented revenues, "the division will grant approval to adopt the budget for 2006." 

: The city's fiscal year began July 1, 2005, and ends June 30. 

: When the budget was introduced in late September, Perlee and Vas said there would be no tax increase this year, unlike the previ ous year that saw the average property owner's bill increase by $207, the first significant tax increase in the city for a decade. 

: But, the proposed budget for this fiscal year had to be amended when the city did not get all of the extraordinary aid that it requested from the state, prompting the $126 tax hike. 

: In her April 20 letter to Vas, Ja cobucci outlined the state's efforts since late September to obtain the necessary documentation, adding, "despite telephone calls and further requests, the division has not received the requested documentation. 

: But, in his answering letter to Jacobucci, Vas pointed out that Perlee had sent "numerous supporting documents in response to the budget examiner's request" and after several telephone calls between the parties, the city felt all requests had been satisfied. 


: Sue Epstein covers Middlesex County. She may be reached at (732) 404-8085 or sepstein@starledger.com. 




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