Guess what city council did last night

Go on, guess. If you said spend money on a fuzzy math budget AND lay the groundwork for a few more abatements, you control the board and get to go again.

The council passed Steve Fulop's magical no tax increase again and we're pretty much basing our budget outlook now on tourism at local hotels. What do we expect from Mr. Goldman Sachs and his Merry Band of YesFolk? Let's not plan for, and or save for the future because the good economic times, they always last. A whole 700K for a budget of 572 million. Yeah, sure, OK. Lost in this is the uptick in municipal fines. Is Jersey City starting to head down the Ferguson Mo. road and increasing revenue in the poorer neighborhoods for annoyance fines? We'd need to see that broken out as to what this climb in fines is for and what part of Jersey City it's increasing in. A $2.2 million increase in municipal court fines is a lot in one year, no?  yet,

Once again the fact abatements are due to come rolling off the books did nothing to stop council from rezoning and almost begging to set up abatements for the old Emerson Radio Factory.

The massive, five-story former factory, now a storage warehouse at 16th and Coles streets, would be part of a roughly 60-acre redevelopment zone in an industrial area of the city that sits in the shadow of the New Jersey Turnpike, blocks from the Holland Tunnel.

The plan also requires the developer of the Emerson factory to build a new, 20,000-square-foot public space that the city says will be a new Downtown police station (so how is that a public space?). Meanwhile, an existing parking lot between 13th and 14th streets just west of Coles Street could eventually become a park (there is currently a 20-year lease on the property). COULD.

Johnny knows you regular readers realize we're not done prepping for more PILOT programs (with no money going to say, schools):

The developer chosen to rehab the old factory would have to keep that structure intact but would be allowed to build 26-story high-rises around it. Current zoning limits height in the area to five stories.

There you go. We DARE any city council member right now to say they'll not vote for abatements for this (AND the Kushner/KRE/KABR horseshit properties). Do it. Be the hero. Say you're done pissing taxpayer money away willy nilly. Jersey City real estate can stand on it's own. Try it and see. Let the developer build it on their dime and keep the profits and pay proper taxes on it. Does council realize we make more money this way? They won't ever know unless they show some spine and try.

Merry Band of YesFolk, lol, Johnny cracks himself up sometimes.