The Hoboken Board of Education will vote to adopt the 2026-2027 budget at its Board of Education Meeting on May 12, 2026.
Commentary: The scale of what Superintendent Johnson and the Board are proposing should alarm everyone in Hoboken — especially during a time when families are already struggling with rising costs, inflation, housing pressures, and economic uncertainty.
The proposed 2026–27 school tax levy would increase by an astonishing $17,450,629, bringing the total levy to $91,339,359 — a staggering 19.1% increase in a single year.
Their primary justification? health benefits, new contracts, student enrollment.
That amounts to roughly $78,962 in additional taxes per projected student (!)
And residents have seen this pattern before: enrollment projections are routinely inflated around budget season, only to fall short later. Meanwhile, charter schools continue to be used as a convenient talking point and political scapegoat every year budget discussions arise.
What makes this proposal even more concerning is the larger trend. In 2023–24, the school tax levy stood at $58.7 million. Just four years later, under this proposal, it would soar to over $91.3 million — nearly a 100% increase in only four years.
At some point, taxpayers must ask difficult but necessary questions:
Where is the fiscal restraint?
Where is the accountability?
And how much more are residents expected to absorb?
No household could sustain spending increases of this magnitude without serious scrutiny. The community deserves transparency, realism, and responsible stewardship — not perpetual double-digit increases justified by questionable projections.
The proposed 2026–27 school tax levy would increase by an astonishing $17,450,629, bringing the total levy to $91,339,359 — a staggering 19.1% increase in a single year.
Their primary justification? health benefits, new contracts, student enrollment.
That amounts to roughly $78,962 in additional taxes per projected student (!)
And residents have seen this pattern before: enrollment projections are routinely inflated around budget season, only to fall short later. Meanwhile, charter schools continue to be used as a convenient talking point and political scapegoat every year budget discussions arise.
What makes this proposal even more concerning is the larger trend. In 2023–24, the school tax levy stood at $58.7 million. Just four years later, under this proposal, it would soar to over $91.3 million — nearly a 100% increase in only four years.
At some point, taxpayers must ask difficult but necessary questions:
Where is the fiscal restraint?
Where is the accountability?
And how much more are residents expected to absorb?
No household could sustain spending increases of this magnitude without serious scrutiny. The community deserves transparency, realism, and responsible stewardship — not perpetual double-digit increases justified by questionable projections.
