State of the City Address Presentation

On Tuesday, March 29, 2022, at 6 PM, Honorable Mayor Helmin J. Caba presented the State of the City Address at the Perth Amboy High School Auditorium.

"Our future is being shaped in new ways, full of new possibilities because of you. To date, everything my administration has done has been determined to be fiscally lean without compromising any services to our residents.
Our focus is and continues to be on
• Economic growth
• Public safety
• and Building Community to transform our city together and build a Perth Amboy where everyone can thrive.
The State of the City Address reflected our accomplishments in 2021 and the plan for a brighter future. With a stable budget and A+ long-term citing our sound fiscal management and budgetary flexibility from Standard & Poor's, we proposed no municipal tax increase for 2022. We collected our first development fee of $2.5 M by adopting the housing element that will rehab homes to be safe and affordable in Perth Amboy. We announced the grounding of the train station for this Spring and the $1M reinvestment for our small businesses through the Urban Enterprise Zone reform program. We have initiated updating the city's Master Plan, which will guide our investments and initiatives citywide for the next 20 years, and increased investment in technology that will reimagine public safety and policing, moving Perth Amboy into a smart city, a City of the Future.

We have made investments in each department by
(1) streamlining our processes
(2) incorporating tracking key performance indicators
(3) and improving our customer service through implementing Spatial Data Logic.

We are combining modern technology in all our open spaces that will revitalize the park experience for our residents, including the Veterans Youth Memorial Complex, the city's largest park with $5.5 million.
We also celebrated our community achievements through our student-athletes, our residents, and our businesses. Building on my vision is to revive our local history onto a national platform with our participation in the 250th anniversary of the United States' 250th anniversary in 2026.

We continue to be a place where people come to try new ideas. Our predecessors invested in Perth Amboy, and as such, we must continue investing in our existing assets, maximizing their potential, and investing in our youth. Our educational institutions provide the foundation for us to thrive.
We will work towards becoming a hub to connect people to people and people to information through the Library with the $1.5M award by Congressman Pallone. In addition, to our library renovations, our 2022 budget outlined specific capital improvement investments upwards of $1.8 Million to strengthen our water infrastructure. With these investments, I uphold my commitment to provide the very best that we have to offer our residents and business owners.

Over the past year, we've come a long way in working towards innovation, transformation, and accomplishing our goals illustrated through our city highlights in 2021. While there are still many challenges, I am proud of what we have accomplished together to position Perth Amboy for a better and brighter future."