City votes in favor of $221M budget
State dashes proposal for 100 more cops and firefighters
TRENTON »
No additional cops. No additional firefighters. But no layoffs.
Mayor Reed Gusciora didn’t get everything on his fanciful state wish list as taxes are going up for Trentonians for the second straight year.
The legislative body adopted the city’s $221.4 million budget by a 6 to 1 vote Thursday night, with Robin Vaughn voting no.
The fiscal year 2020 budget includes $4.5 million in funding for a State Police real-time crime center to bolster the law-enforcement presence in the capital city and money to restore Trenton Water Work staffing to full capacity.
The budget also includes $1.5 million in renovations to re-open the long-shuttered East Trenton library branch that the administration hopes becomes a “community
haven.”
The city is putting up about a quarter of a million dollars and the rest is from federal CDGB funds and a matching $750K grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Mayor Reed Gusciora said.
The four branch libraries were closed in 2010, under then-Mayor Tony Mack.
To fund all this, residents will see an average $84 increase on their tax bills, after the council adopted what the 8.4 cent increase — less than last year’s 11-cent increase that led to a state court showdown between legislators and the administration.
Most gut-punching for the administration: The mayor’s initially $232.8 million proposed fiscal year 2020 budget that included funding to add 100 cops and firefighters went by the wayside.
Gusciora refused to acknowledge that his rosecolored hopes and dreams of adding that many public safety workers were completely dashed by the Department of Community Affairs as the state grapples with steep revenue losses amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“I refuse to concede your question. We’re not ruling that out,” Gusciora said of his wishful-thinking proposal. “It’s a not a yes or no question. We will be continuing to add to the ranks. We pared down [the budget] to make it realistic, one we could live with where we didn’t have to lay off anybody.”
Gusciora wasn’t prepared to say how that would happen or how many cops and firefighters the city realistically hopes to add this year.
Trenton officials hoped to secure $25 million in transitional aid, but were forced to settle for roughly $16 million — $10 million of that already owed to Trenton as part of legislatively mandated capital city aid.
Instead, the state gave Trenton $4.5 million to put toward what Tina Vignali, a transitional aid monitor at the Department of Community Affairs, called in emails a “city-wide, state-of-theart, real-time crime center.”
The RTCC will be developed “under an agreement with the State Police,” the monitor said, but it’s unclear where it will be located as details are still being worked out.
Trenton has been besieged by violence this year, already one murder off last year’s total of 16. The capital city is on pace to have its third-deadliest year on record, surpassed only by the 37 murders in 2013 and 31 in 2005, at the height of the gang wars.
The city also set aside: $2.5 million for salary adjustments for city employees in contract negotiations; an unspecified amount for paving projects and blighted properties demolition; and to restore full staffing at TWW, which braces for a lawsuit after council shot down millions in bonds for projects mandated under two consent orders with the state Department of Environmental Protection.
Gusciora said TWW is now about 90 percent staffed, up from the roughly 70 vacancies he inherited when taking over for exMayor Eric Jackson.
“We had to make some difficult choices in this budget,” Gusciora said. “Our decision-making was focused on the needs of Trentonians and sought to have zero impact on our hardworking employees, who are at the forefront of delivering much-needed services in this time of crisis.”