Talking Taxes In Montclair: Town Hall Will Discuss Budget

MONTCLAIR, NJ — A virtual series of town halls will try to give local residents a “user-friendly” glimpse into Montclair’s municipal government, taxes and budget, organizers say.

Montclair Councilor-at-Large Peter Yacobellis is helping to spearhead the town hall series, which kick off at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 26. Interested residents can register by clicking here.

Joining Yacobellis for the presentation on Jan. 26 will be Brigid D'Souza, CPA, MBA; a resident of Jersey City and assistant professor in the Department of Accountancy & Business Law at Saint Peter's University. Brigid researches and writes about local public finance at www.civicparent.org, where she focuses on topics related to property tax, school funding, tax abatements and more.

Other local residents are also helping to spearhead the series, including:

• Eileen Birmingham, MD, MPH is a resident of Montclair with an interest in trying to understand civic data and budgets. She has a child in the Montclair school district.
• Colleen Dougherty, CPA PC has been an accountant for over 30 years specializing in a variety of industries. She is a resident of Montclair with children in the Montclair School District.
• Nolan Haims is a leading expert in visual communications, one of only 15 PowerPoint MVPs in the U.S. as designated by Microsoft, and the owner of a design consultancy based in Montclair.

“For the last couple of months, some local leaders and I have been collaborating to develop a very user-friendly presentation to help everyone understand some very basics about our government, their taxes, and our budget,” Yacobellis said. “We hope this will be a well-attended Montclair Budget 101-type session as we plan a series of follow-up sessions in the months ahead to dive even deeper.”

“We have so much talent in and around Montclair and I'm so thankful to Brigid, Eileen, Colleen and Nolan for volunteering their time to help develop this comprehensive and easy-to-follow presentation and ideate on a larger series of sessions that will explore and explain much more in the months ahead,” Yacobellis added.

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