JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Jersey City is seeking a $120 million lifeline from New Jersey taxpayers, but a newly released audit detailing years of unresolved financial-control problems is giving critics reason to question whether Trenton should be opening the checkbook without considerably more scrutiny.
The city’s 2025 audit identified two material weaknesses in internal financial controls, including problems with financial closing and reporting as well as a fixed-asset inventory auditors said was presumed materially misstated.
The latter is hardly new. Versions of the fixed-assets finding have appeared in audits dating back to 2014, and auditors again declined to express an opinion on Jersey City’s General Fixed Assets for 2025 because the city did not provide an updated inventory. The previous year’s inventory required an eye-popping $854.9 million adjustment.
Assemblywoman Victoria Flynn (R-Monmouth) says those findings should give lawmakers pause before approving a nine-figure rescue.
“NJ taxpayers are being asked to trust Jersey City with $120 million,” Flynn said. “But Jersey City’s own audits raise serious questions about whether that trust is warranted.”
There is plenty more in the audit to fuel that skepticism.
Auditors found approximately $2.5 million in 2025 health-insurance-related expenditures that weren’t included in year-end encumbrances. They also reported $246,088 spent beyond appropriation reserves and another $296,788 beyond appropriated grant reserves. Budget compliance problems have been cited repeatedly since 2021.
🚨 NJ TAXPAYERS ARE BEING ASKED TO TRUST JERSEY CITY WITH $120 MILLION.
But Jersey City’s own audits raise serious questions about whether that trust is warranted.
Among the findings (some of them are REPEAT findings)
❌ Inadequate controls over City assets
❌ Problems with…— Victoria Flynn (@AswVickyFlynn) August 15, 2026
Payroll practices also drew scrutiny. In a sample of 20 employees receiving overtime, auditors found one employee paid for 10 hours when supporting records documented only six. Seven of the 20 samples didn’t describe the work performed. The city’s corrective action plan separately acknowledges insufficient accumulated-leave documentation and employee severance overpayments caused by data-entry errors.
Then there are old bills coming home to roost.
Approximately $3.1 million in payroll-tax overpayments dating to 2019 remain on Jersey City’s books but are now considered uncollectible, meaning they must ultimately be covered through budget appropriations. That problem, too, is a repeat finding.
Auditors additionally identified $13.04 million in completed capital projects more than five years old that can no longer be financed through bonds and will instead need to be funded through taxation.
Another $15.26 million in microtransit expenses was charged to capital improvement authorizations even though auditors said eligibility for capital financing under New Jersey law has not been established. Jersey City has since decided to treat the service as an operating expense going forward.
The audit also found $7.7 million in outstanding receivables connected to the city’s off-duty police program, with auditors questioning the collectability of at least some of that money.
Meanwhile, roughly $17.8 million in grant receivables and $12.2 million in grant reserves are tied to grants more than five years old, creating risks that receivables could prove uncollectible or unused funds may need to be returned.
Jersey City has proposed corrective measures, but some won’t be completed quickly. Its fixed-asset overhaul, for example, isn’t expected to be finished until September 2027.
For Flynn, the issue is therefore less about whether Jersey City promises to fix its books than why state taxpayers should provide $120 million before lawmakers get answers.
“Why are we being asked to trust, but not verify, with $120 million in taxpayer dollars?” she asked.
With years of repeat findings documented by the city’s own auditors, that’s becoming a harder question for Trenton to dismiss.
25-COJC-Audit-Released-08112026 Jersey-City-2026-Corrective-Action-Plan
