The $150,000 projection was not read aloud during the six-minute vote. Council members who had voted no on the budget compromise backed the revenue measure unanimously.
Hoboken owns 49 advertising display faces in municipal parking garages that have sat idle since the city issued a 2021 Request for Proposals. The RFP produced no contracts, no sales and no historical data to benchmark the projection. On June 17, the City Council voted unanimously to amend that dormant RFP. Hudson County View, which obtained the resolution text, reported that the document projected $150,000 in annual advertising revenue.
The vote came two weeks after the same council split 6-3 on a budget compromise that raised taxes 11.5 percent. Paul Presinzano, Mike Russo and Michael Cohen, all of whom voted no on the budget, supported the advertising measure without dissent.
S&P Global had assigned a negative outlook to the city's bonds in February. Mayor Emily Jabbour introduced a $152.1 million budget in April that carried a $17 million structural deficit and a tax increase that approached 19 percent. On June 3, the council approved an amended $161.3 million budget by a 6-3 vote. The mayor's office had pushed for a steeper levy than the council accepted.
The fiscal fight consumed the council's spring. "Taxpayers aren't asking for a discounted deal on bad apples—they're asking why the city keeps buying bad apples," Presinzano said. Cohen warned the council should not forecast based on "best-case scenarios and assuming nothing but rainbows and roses for our fiscal year." The three dissenters pressed the administration to find revenue alternatives rather than rely on resident assessments.
Presinzano, Russo and Cohen each scrutinized spending at the June 17 meeting. Russo grilled the Hoboken Business Alliance director over whether the special improvement district was duplicating city services and assessing property owners fairly. Cohen questioned why the city was contracting out legal work he said corporation counsel had previously handled in-house. The three council members had voted against the council's tax compromise and now sought revenue alternatives they had proposed during the budget fight.
Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher (2nd Ward) had also voted no on the introduced budget in April, citing fiscal concerns. Two months later she was sponsoring the advertising resolution and chairing the subcommittee that narrowed its scope.
Councilman at-Large Joe Quintero told the council the advertising resolution was "low-hanging fruit" the council had committed to pursue after the budget fight. He proposed attacking revenue measures and efficiencies immediately, noting he sent a note to the mayor, the assistant administrator and Council President Ruben Ramos the day after the budget vote.
Quintero, Firestone, Fisher and Ramos formed a subcommittee that met the previous day to narrow the proposal. Fisher described the session as one of the most productive meetings she had experienced on the council. She said it convened after Quintero sent his note.
Fisher explained the city was tightening the existing RFP to focus exclusively on the Hop shuttle and municipal ad panels. The original document, issued in January 2021, described 30 double-sided backlit display faces and 19 single-sided non-backlit faces across municipal parking garages. The bike share program had funded itself through advertising on the panels, with the city collecting no direct revenue from that arrangement, and the document indicated no legacy contracts remain in place.
Fisher eliminated naming rights and full portfolio deals from the amended document. She said the council lacked the expertise to manage naming rights without outside guidance. The councilwoman raised the example of a corporate-branded pickleball facility, noting a sponsor might seek event rights or filming access in exchange for payment. The original RFP had ranged from ad panels to naming rights of garages, which Fisher said was "not the way to go" without the proper knowledge.
Fisher told the council an executive had advised the subcommittee that Hoboken held "the most valuable demographics in the state of New Jersey." Councilwoman Diane Imus specified the executive was referring to the 18-to-49 age bracket. "That we are a 'goldmine' is what he said," Imus added. Fisher cautioned the council to ensure any advertising would not offend the community. "We don't have to chase every dollar," she said.
Fisher noted the subcommittee had discussed not fragmenting advertising across seven municipal directors but instead concentrating the effort in one area. She said departments would draw on that centralized expertise. Imus had already connected advertising executives with the mayor's office, Fisher added, and the group was considering creating what she described as "almost like a marketing and advisory, for advertising."
Russo addressed the administration's position on the revenue measures earlier in the meeting. The 3rd Ward councilman told the council the mayor had previously sent a press release that, in his characterization, made the administration sound opposed to revenue measures. He said the administration was nonetheless "most certainly on board with voting on this tonight and very supportive of it." No matching public communication surfaced in city archives.
The council spent about six minutes on the advertising item. The measure drew no substantive public comment, though the council heard from residents earlier in the evening on redevelopment plans, affordable housing grants and a bird-friendly building ordinance. Residents had spoken at length about the Hoboken Business Alliance budget, a Southwest redevelopment plan, legal fees and bus lane enforcement. One speaker played a bird song for the council before urging passage of the bird-friendly ordinance.
The vote was 9-0. The council approved the amended resolution without reading the $150,000 figure aloud. The public agenda packet listed only the item title under Transportation and Parking, and did not include the full text in the materials posted before the meeting. Resolutions routinely appear as titles only in public packets, with full texts typically posted after the next council meeting. Hoboken Girl reported the resolution took effect immediately.
The city will seek a vendor through the amended RFP. The $150,000 projection equals less than one-tenth of one percent of the city's $161.3 million budget — a margin too small to have closed the deficit. The 49 display faces have sat idle for five years.
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Sources
• City of Hoboken, "City of Hoboken Introduces 2026 Municipal Budget" (April 22, 2026)
• City of Hoboken, "Mayor Jabbour Announces New 2026 Budget Process After S&P Outlook Revision" (February 18, 2026)
• City of Hoboken, Public Agenda Packet (June 17, 2026)
• City of Hoboken, RFP 21-02, "Request for Proposals: Competitive Contracting Outdoor Advertising Panels Concession" (January 21, 2021)
• City of Hoboken, YouTube, "JUNE 17, 2026 HOBOKEN CITY COUNCIL MEETING" (June 17, 2026)
• Daniel Ulloa, Hudson County View, "Hoboken Council Moves Forward With Selling Ads on Public Assets for New Revenues" (June 18, 2026)
• Hoboken Girl, "Hoboken City Council Gives Preliminary Approval to Amended 2026 Budget" (June 5, 2026)
• Hoboken Girl, "Hoboken NJ Advertisement Program Public Spaces" (June 22, 2026)
• Patch, "Taxes To Rise 19 Percent In Preliminary Hoboken Budget" (April 24, 2026)
• S&P Global Ratings, "Hoboken, NJ GO Debt Rating Outlook Revised To Negative" (February 18, 2026)
• TAPinto Hoboken, "Hoboken Council Approves Compromise Budget With 11.5% Tax Increase Despite Widespread Dissatisfaction" (June 4, 2026)
• TAPinto Hoboken, "Hoboken Eyes $150K in Annual Revenue Through Advertising Program" (June 21, 2026)