JACKSON – For the last several council meetings, Councilman Nino Borrelli has mentioned that he was looking forward to reading, reviewing and voting on this year’s municipal budget. During the latest council meeting, others inquired when the spending plan would be revealed.
The proposed budget is set for a presentation during the April 28 council meeting according to Council President Mordechai Burnstein.
Resident Jim Silecchia had some pointed questions relating to the status of the budget noting it had not yet been released for review to members of council and a citizens committee.
“Tonight (April 14) is the final day permitted under the local finance board’s 2026 budget calendar for a municipal budget to be introduced. After tonight, Jackson Township will no longer be in compliance with the state authorized timeline and yet despite being the last permissible night, the budget is still not being introduced,” the resident said.
“This is especially troubling, given the mayor’s own public statement on January 27, 2026 when the administration announced the budget is done,” Silecchia added. “If the budget was completed nearly three months ago, then the responsibility for this failure to introduce it rests squarely with the mayor’s office.”
The budget work is being performed by Township Business Administrator Charles W. Terefenko the chief financial officer and by finance department staff. It is also being reviewed by the mayor.
Last year the budget was late and that delay was blamed on a late transition of a new business administrator, a new CFO and deputy CFO at the time. During that time then-Council President Jennifer Kuhn expressed concern with then-Mayor Michael Reina about the delay.
Silecchia noted, “residents deserve answers so council president I am going to ask you to allow the honorable mayor to answer the following questions, if the budget was completed in January why isn’t it being introduced on the final night allowed by law, 74 days later?”
“Why has the mayor withheld the document from the public preventing any meaningful review or discussion? Why has the mayor excluded the Citizens Budget Advisory Committee, a committee the mayor created and pronounced as a transparency tool?” the resident asked.
He also questioned how refusing to release a completed budget “aligns with any stated commitment to openness, accountability or responsible fiscal management?”
Mayor Kuhn did not respond to his questions during the council meeting and The Jackson Times reached out to ask her a day after the meeting whether Silecchia’s timeline on the budget’s completion was accurate, what the status of the spending plan was and when it would be released for review to the entire council and the citizens committee. The mayor did not reply to these questions at press time.
Council President Burnstein responded to another resident’s inquiry about the budget saying “in this form of government the mayor puts together the budget and gives it to the council to introduce and they spend the time – they have a period of time, generally two weeks between meetings – to go through it and I have been updating our council that the mayor is hoping to introduce it by the next meeting.”
The New Jersey Local Finance Board adjusted the CY2026 budget calendar, extending key deadlines to provide flexibility for municipalities and counties, including moving the Annual Financial Statement (AFS) filing deadline to March 10. For specific municipalities, the budget transmission deadline was moved to February 27.
Silecchia said this extension allowed municipalities more time to “plan, communicate and engage with residents. Instead, Jackson is ending the process with no introduction, no transparency, no public access to the most important financial document of the year and it begins with the mayor.”
“This is not a timing issue, it is a governance issue,” Silecchia added calling for an explanation. He noted that the Local Finance Board had increased the financial penalties from $25 a day to $100 a day for violations toward elected officials related to the time requirements established to introduce municipal budgets.
“That’s on you,” he told the council and asked the council if they had seen a recommended budget on February 28 as per requirements of the Local Finance Board.
Borrelli said no. He responded no to Silecchia’s follow up question as to whether they have seen a recommended budget since then. Councilman Chris Pollak shook his head as well.
“We are late and the council hasn’t looked at it. This is a pattern in all government. You are going to push something through at the last minute and then you are going to give very little time for people to read it, review it and vote on it,” Pollak said.
“The people are sick of government like this,” he added. “Get it done early. Mr. Silecchia is pretty spot on the money. If you say something is done, why haven’t we seen it? I don’t want to wait last minute to review this.”
Pollak predicted, “what will probably happen is at the next meeting we will get it a couple of days before and I’ll probably have to take a day off work to sit and go through everything and read everything and bring up my objections and then we’re going to fight on it. You guys bank on that. Everybody is just going to say yes. This is the way this government works. This the way a lot of governments work.”
He noted the document would be between 100 and 200 pages long and he asked, “why did we set up a committee? What are we doing?”
Mayoral candidate Elliot Shem-Tov remarked, “it sounds like the issue we have in this town is transparency. It’s been a mantra hasn’t it. Transparency with the budget. It is harrowing enough that the budget is late but the fact that you have council members who haven’t even had a chance to review it. I’d like to know why we have this lack of transparency?”
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