Poll Area

Mayor Hawkins insists that budget must not contain a twenty percent tax increase.

Statement by Mayor Eldridge Hawkins, Jr.

“Since Governor Christie announced his cuts in state aid to Orange and the other cities of New Jersey, Orange residents have been clear that they want me to fight to protect citizens from a huge increase in local property taxes. I have heard their voices. That’s why my administration will not introduce a budget with a twenty percent tax increase, and we will not introduce a budget in December before we have done everything possible to reduce the need for layoffs. Layoffs may be necessary to close our budget gap, but before they are implemented, I want to give our unions every opportunity to agree to salary, work rule, pension and benefit changes that could reduce our labor costs without costing jobs.

We are still in negotiations with our unions for givebacks to minimize the need for layoffs. We are prepared to negotiate up until the very moment that layoffs take effect on January 7th. We are also continuing to search for additional revenues to hold down taxes.

I will continue to do everything humanly possible to protect our homeowners and businesses from a devastating tax increase in the midst of this terrible recession. A late but affordable budget is better than an on-time budget that damages Orange.

As we have said before, once these issues are settled, a budget will be introduced in January and we will hold a forum at which citizens can ask questions about the impact of the budget and receive answers from the heads of every department.”