Official release:

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In an official Nixle release late this afternoon, the Ravi Bhalla Administration issued another fabricated political release abusing the public.

In just over a year, the Hoboken mayor is becoming a legendary liar!

This latest lie, however, breaks new ground letting the cat out of the bag on two fronts. First, the Ravi-Russo Alliance denied officially but obvious to observers last night is followed with Twilight Zone congratulations for an event that never occurred!

Then today, Mayor Ravi Bhalla thanked the City Council for passing Councilman Michael Russo’s ordinance retreating on dynamic price gouging on the Hoboken parking meters. Read More...

Official release:

Councilman DeFusco Calls for Honest Budgeting, End of Backdoor Taxes After Council Sizes Back Mayor Bhalla’s Parking Rate Increases

Last night the Hoboken City Council pulled Mayor Ravi Bhalla’s proposed municipal budget off the agenda following the Mayor backing away from his controversial parking rate increases. The proposed budget includes $1.2 million in anticipated revenues from the rate increases, and now that the plan has been scuttled that loss of revenue adds to an existing $1.7 million potential budget hole for a total shortfall of $2.9 million. Read More...

Official release:

Response to Mayor Bhalla’s 2019 budget and anti-business parking proposal – try again.

On Monday, Mayor Bhalla delivered his 2019 Municipal Budget to the Hoboken City Council.  The budget included a 2.5% increase in appropriations and relied heavily on future parking revenue increases from his recently proposed Dynamic Pricing parking meter plan.  But then, just a day later on Tuesday, Mayor Bhalla publicly announced his support for undoing the same parking meter increases that helped fund his 2019 budget.  Creating uncertainties about underfunding and lack of confidence in the draft budget, this led the Hoboken City Council to choose not to introduce the budget at its council meeting last night, but rather asking the administration to take another stab at their proposed budget. “Given the radical changes they proposed that would impact parking revenue, the Administration clearly needs more time to reconcile their policy views with their budget and we want to help give them that time.  We want to see the Mayor sharpen his pencil in terms of cost-cutting and provide more transparency about how he plans to replenish the city’s rainy day fund (surplus) that has been depleted by almost $5 million.”  Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher, Chair of the Revenue, Finance and Infrastructure subcommittee. The Mayor’s reversal on the dynamic pricing came in response to significant pushback from residents.  However, his and Councilman Russo’s response was a proposed ordinance repealing the rate increases that also came with a concerning anti-business provision: allowing Hoboken residents to take up critical parking spaces in Hoboken’s central business district for free, for four hours.   When Councilman Russo refused to remove this anti-business provision when asked by his council colleagues, Councilwoman Fisher introduced, and the City Council approved, a parallel ordinance which also repealed the prior parking rate increases leaving unchanged the free parking for residents citywide except at meters in certain business areas.    “We need to find the right balance that promotes our businesses that we all want to see succeed, that contributes to the growing financial and parking related needs of our city and does not penalize our own residents.  No matter what, parking meter rates on Washington St. need to go up from $1/hr.  This level disincentives turnover which is critical for our local businesses to survive.  I am looking forward to working with my colleagues on a new plan, and with the Mayor and his Administration on finalizing a 2019 budget we can all support.”

Last night, the best-laid plans of mice and men were upended. The Hoboken public wins with their united opposition to the drastic parking meter hikes.

In the end, the process to undo the recent Bhalla Administration hikes on parking meters with dynamic pricing passed narrowly as the City Council begins to roll back that recent action.

Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher introduced an ordinance to roll back the Bhalla Administration dynamic parking meter hikes. 

Her ordinance passed narrowly 5-3-1 after a competing version from Councilman Michael Russo was tabled amid heated debate. It’s the first step in the process to find a better balance in costs and availability the council will revisit. Read More...

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It’s here. A twofer on the local Hoboken government side with proposed tax increases and the recently approved dynamic parking increase retreats is official.

As exclusively reported on Hobokenhorse.com, the Ravi Bhalla Administration presented its first full-fledged budget to the City Council with an approximate 2% tax increase.

That tax increase annualized is the highest since the Dawn Zimmer Administration took the helm in November 2009. (Previous to her election, Zimmer was Acting Mayor but the State had appointed a fiscal monitor, the late Judy Tripodi who inserted a massive tax increase upon discovering a major deficit running more than $10 million.) Read More...

Official releases:

  Dear friends and neighbors: This is one of those times where I am begging you to attend a community meeting tomorrow (3/14) night at 7pm.  

• Topic – Redevelopment Plan for the North End of Hoboken
• Location – Wallace School Cafeteria

Why should you attend?  If your answer is “no” to any of the following questions:

Do you want longer bus lines in the morning?

Do you want a more crowded platform at the PATH station in the morning?

Do you want more shuttles dropping off and lining up near the PATH?

Do you want more kids on every recreational sports team so each child has less playing time?

Do you want more cars leaving Hoboken when you do?

Do you want a longer waiting list for Hoboken’s pre-k program?

Do you want higher taxes?

Read More...

In this latest Mayor Ravi Bhalla episode of “How I sold out Reform,” Hoboken begins to get the picture, literally, how the Mile Square City went from a beacon of reform to a HudCo principality.

Seems like only yesterday when Cavedweller Ravibots deemed HudCo entanglements evil incarnate.  That was before Mayor Ravi Bhalla incinerated Councilman Jim Doyle’s resolution against the upcoming North Bergen Power Plant serving New York City. Doyle’s resolution was summarily yanked off the October City Council agenda and hasn’t been seen since. Readers here exclusively learned weeks ago of two backroom meetings between Ravi Bhalla and North Bergen Mayor and State Senator Nick Sacco. The visible results are seen below. It’s a FacePuncher HudCo lovefest! Can you identify the FacePunchers, Ravibots and Joey the Nose in the photo taken at a Nick Sacco rally?

Talking Ed Note: Back with FacePuncher IDs and so much more. Someone get the bottom-feeding cavefish to a toilet. There’s a whole lot of hypocrisy to puke up. That’s the steady diet for Ravi’s paid political operatives and campaign staff talking to each other in Sybil’s Cave. Chow down! Read More...