Jersey City Votes Today on a 20% Tax Hike. Here’s How It Got This Bad.

Jersey City residents are about to take a punch in the third-quarter tax bill — and the timeline is shorter than it looks.

Mayor James Solomon is proposing a 20% increase to the municipal property tax rate as part of a plan to close a roughly $255 million structural deficit – about 28% of the city’s entire annual operating budget, according to a statement from the City of Jersey City. The hike, if adopted, would show up on every Q3 bill in the city.

This isn’t a single dramatic vote. It’s a months-long process that’s been building since Solomon took office and opened the books — and it lands publicly this week.

How a City With Billions in Real Estate Wound Up $255M in the Hole

Solomon’s administration says it inherited the mess. In February, the mayor blamed his predecessor, Steven Fulop, for what he called a “catastrophic” deficit and pointed to two big numbers: $667 million in one-shot revenues used since 2019, and $109 million in unpaid bills he says the Fulop administration left behind, according to reporting by Jersey City Times and Hudson County View.

According to those reports, the previous administration sold nearly 1,000 city-owned properties for at least $100 million during its tenure, and used $33 million from those sales in 2025 alone to plug operating-budget holes. When the property sales stopped, the gap stayed.

There’s a longer history under all of this. Jersey City spent 28 years without a property revaluation, the last one was in 1988. The state ultimately forced the issue and in April 2016, the New Jersey Treasury ordered Jersey City to complete a reval by November 2017. At the time of the order, assessed values averaged only about 27% of actual market value, when state law required roughly 85% compliance.

In other words: the city avoided the politically painful work of right-sizing its tax base for nearly three decades, then layered years of one-time revenue on top. The bill is coming due now.

There are really three separate moments on the calendar:

• Wednesday, June 24: The City Council takes up the estimated Q3 tax bill resolution – the procedural mechanism that lets the city issue Q3 bills using the 20% increase as the working assumption. At least three council members (Brooks, Ephros, and Little) have publicly said they’ll vote yes, per Hudson County View. The caucus convenes at 4 p.m. at City Hall, 280 Grove Street, and the public session streams on Microsoft Teams.
• By June 30: The New Jersey state budget deadline. Jersey City has formally applied for roughly $150 million in Transitional Aid from the Department of Community Affairs which would be the largest such award in state history, eclipsing Camden’s $69M record from 2010.
• July 15: Solomon’s administration says the full Fiscal Year 2026 budget will be formally introduced at the July 15 council meeting, per his interim budget report. Final adoption – and any public hearing – comes after that.

The 20% increase applies only to Jersey City’s municipal portion of the property tax bill — not the county or school portion.

The administration’s plan rests on three pillars: cut costs, raise non-tax revenue, and pursue state aid. Solomon has said publicly that the tax hike will happen this year regardless of whether the state aid comes through, according to Hudson County View — though a bigger state package could blunt the size of future increases.

The Transitional Aid would also come with strings. Accepting it would require the city to sign a memorandum of understanding with the state and accept a state-appointed fiscal monitor with authority to reject city spending decisions. The plan envisions three years of aid as part of a five-year path to balance.

What This Actually Costs You

The city has stopped short of publishing a single average-homeowner dollar figure, in part because Jersey City property assessments vary so widely. Instead, the city posted a 2026 Estimated Tax Calculator at jerseycitynj.gov, which lets residents plug in their property’s assessed value and see what the Q3 bump will look like for them specifically.

A few things worth knowing before you run the numbers:

• The increase is to the rate, not your assessment. If your assessment hasn’t changed, you’re paying 20% more of the municipal portion than you would have otherwise.
• It applies to the Q3 bill under the current proposal — though Solomon’s framework signals more pain is coming as the city works through its five-year plan.
• Renters aren’t exempt. Landlords in New Jersey can pass through property tax increases, and many will.

What Residents Can Actually Do

There’s more than one window — and right now, all of them are open.

• Show up Wednesday. The June 24 caucus is at 4 p.m., City Hall, 280 Grove Street, with public sessions streaming on Microsoft Teams. Public comment on the Q3 estimated tax bill resolution belongs here.
• Contact your ward council member directly. Three have publicly committed to yes. The rest are still gettable — and the full budget vote is still weeks away.
• Push your state legislators on the Transitional Aid request. A bigger or faster state package reduces how much of the deficit lands on local taxpayers. The state budget is due June 30.
• Plan for July 15. That’s when the full FY26 budget is formally introduced. The real public hearing — and the more politically charged vote — comes after that.
• Check your assessment. If your property has been incorrectly assessed since the 2017 reval, the Tax Assessor’s office handles appeals. A 20% rate hike on an inflated assessment compounds.
• Run the city’s calculator before you panic. Or after. Either way, know your number before you call your council member.

The 20% hike isn’t the end of it — it’s the first publicly painful step in a five-year plan, and the size of that pain depends a lot on what Trenton does in the next week and how the full budget lands on July 15.

Jersey City residents have more than one window to weigh in. The first one opens Wednesday at 4 p.m.

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sources:

• https://www.jerseycitynj.gov/news/plan_to_close_inherited__255_million_deficit
• https://jcitytimes.com/jersey-city-faces-staggering-250m-budget-deficit-solomon-slams-fulop/
• https://hudsoncountyview.com/solomon-says-jersey-city-property-tax-hike-will-occur-this-year-even-with-state-aid/
• http://hudsoncountyview.com/brooks-ephros-little-will-vote-for-q3-jersey-city-tax-bills-with-20-rate-hike/