Linden Mayor Derek Armstead announced that residents will not be receiving a tax increase this year: something that hasn’t been done since 2006. Not only will there be no increase, there will be an actual reduction of $12.77 per household based on the assessed value on $131,700.

In 2017, the mayor had the garbage fee eliminated, a promise he kept from his 2014 election campaign. “Not only have we eliminated the garbage fee, we actually managed to lower taxes, something that others said could not be done.” In January, Mayor Armstead asked for what he called a “tax holiday,” and made a commitment to a “zero increase.” He is now asking that the Linden Board of Education and Union County Board of Chosen Freeholders follow his lead.

Armstead went on to say, “Our bond rating remains stable according to Moody’s and S&P. Our surplus increased from last year by $1.4 million.” According to the bond-rating companies, Linden has a strong economy. The mayor continued, “We have a number of new developments scheduled to come on line which will bring in recurring revenues to the city in the form of taxes and pilot programs that will be paid directly to the city. This gives us hope for future years to continue this trend.”

S&P also said that Linden has a strong management and a strong budgetary performance. “We accomplished this without reducing or cutting any level of services that our residents are accustomed to,” said Mayor Armstead.