Paterson city workers return to work despite budget impasse

City workers in Paterson return to work on Wednesday as the City Council and mayor continue to work on a budget.

NorthJersey.com reported that the council approved a temporary amendment that allows all workers to return to work today after  Mayor Jose "Joey" Torres rejected another budget proposal on Tuesday. The city has not had a permanent budget since October with the major sticking points being a 6.1% property tax increase proposed by the mayor.

"Despite being two thirds of the way through Fiscal Year 2016, the city has operated on a series of monthly interim budgets, several of which have required multiple attempts to pass. This is partly because the city did not find out until February 26, 2016 how much transitional aid it would receive from the state. The city depends on the state’s transitional aid to balance its books, receiving $25 million in 2015, or 9.6% of its budget. This uncertainty on our transitional aid for fiscal 2016 created budgeting difficulties, making it difficult to produce a balanced budget until late in February," explained Torres on his Facebook page.

Many of the 1,200 "non-essential" city workers who had to take Tuesday off without pay were at the council meeting looking for answers according to the news site, which reported that council members voted to give up their own pay for the day as a sign of solidarity with the workers .

Torres, who was criticized for not being at the meeting says the city saved $225,000 by shutting down for the day.

The Associated Press contributed to this report