Jersey City Council Meeting – Tuesday, November 20, 2018 – Payroll Tax

On Tuesday at the Jersey City Council meeting, the Payroll Tax proposal is on the agenda and open to public comment.  There is no doubt that there will be both strong support and opposition to this new proposed tax on all private employers’ payrolls of non-Jersey City residents (the tax is not levied on individual employee’s wages).  The tax revenues are intended to support the budget gap that Jersey City Public Schools face as the State of New Jersey begins to withdraw the funding that has long supported the city’s public schools.

For more information, check out the following links:

• NJ.com article on the November 20 city council vote on payroll tax
• NJ.com article on the November 7 introduction of the payroll tax ordinance
• Civic Parent (Support) – local blogger and parent who has researched and reported on taxes and the funding of our local schools
• Opinion Piece (GOP Opposes Payroll Tax) – Matthew Garofalo is a Jersey City resident and chairman of the Hudson County Young Republicans. Joshua Sotomayor Einstein of Hoboken is the NJ GOP State Committeeman representing Hudson County
• Opinion Piece (City Council Members Offer 5 Point Plan for JCBOE) – two Jersey City council members, James Solomon and Michael Yun, share a plan for filling the funding gap
• Opinion Piece (Real Jersey City Favors Income Tax Over Payroll Tax) – Michael Shurin writes about local news for his site called Real Jersey City
• NJ.com article describing business groups’ opposition to payroll tax
• Mayor Steven Fulop has expressed his support on social media, saying:
  • 1% is a small tax, which will be shouldered by large companies like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan
  • Newark and NYC have payroll taxes, which would mitigate any negative impact to Jersey City’s competitiveness
  • Small businesses hire locally, and there is an exemption for businesses that have Jersey City resident employees
  • Jersey City schools are underfunded by $150m
  • The payroll tax would help to avoid a 35% increase in property taxes
  • The payroll tax would help to avoid significant layoffs of Jersey City Public Schools faculty and staff