The earlier version of this story had an inaccurate overall budget. Camden City has a budget of $ 227 million.
Camden has struggled for decades with a host of financial problems: mismanagement, which led to the takeover of the state from 2002 to 2010; a recession that hit municipal budgets across the country but put Camden in disarray; reduction of basic services such as the fire service and the police department, the latter being so severe that the city handed over the police to county forces.
City officials, however, are trumpeting for improvement public safety, education and financial stabilityand say the latest sign of Camden’s return to financial health is his ability to present the Council’s budget on time for the first time in at least ten years.
“It took a lot of teamwork,” said Mayor Vic Karstarfen. The city’s $ 227 million budget, he added, will address issues he advertises as a priority for his administration, mostly through public feedback: road repairs and rehabilitation, city cleaning and beautification, and services aimed at children , young people and the elderly.
“This budget supports city services and does not provide for cuts,” said business administrator Tim Cunningham. hired in December. “In the form in which it is, it meets the limit of appropriations and fees.”
More financial news:For the first time in decades, Camden’s bond rating reaches A-
The City Council will consider the budget at an extraordinary meeting on March 29; the state, which continues to control the city’s finances, will also have to approve a spending plan.
Camden will also receive $ 18.9 million in state aid.
In December, Standard & Poor’s, the world’s municipal rating agency, raised the city’s rating to A- with BBB +, which has been in effect since 2014. It described the city’s forecast as “stable” but noted a “strong incentive” for Camden to maintain financial dependence on government.
Karstarfen, who is in charge of finance and accounting, called the rating of the budget and bonds “more positive steps and building blocks for our city.”
Cunningham noted that the city will also revise new and existing PILOT agreements (payments instead of taxes) to increase its existing tax base.
As the COVID-19 crisis eases, Camden, a city that was initially badly affected by the virus, has returned relatively well, city spokesman Vince Basara said.
The budget and improved bond rating are “good for residents, good for business and good for Camden’s overall perception; they give people confidence that the city is moving in the right direction,” he added.
The city’s unemployment rate before the pandemic was a 30-year low of 8.7 percent, said former mayor Dana Red, who now heads the board at the Camden Community Partnership, a nonprofit community development organization. At the height of the pandemic, it rose to nearly 22 percent but recovered to 9.7 percent.
The editor called the budget “positive news for the government” and the unemployment rate “a good indicator for the future of the city.”
“Together, this is good for the long-term sustainability of the city’s finances and socio-economic well-being.”
Phaedra Tretan has been a reporter and editor in South Jersey since 2007 and has covered Camden and surrounding areas since 2015, focusing on quality of life and social justice issues for the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal. Since 1971, it has been called home to South Jersey. Contact her for reviews, news tips or questions at ptrethan@gannettnj.comon Twitter @By_Phaedra or by phone 856.486-2417.
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