JERSEY CITY –Mayor Steven M. Fulop announces today he will propose at the next council meeting the withdrawal of the Arts Referendum planned for the November ballot to allow voters to decide on the establishment of an Arts and Culture Trust Fund. The proposal to implement the special levy was announced in February, following years of working alongside local arts organizations to lobby state legislators to implement the mechanisms that would allow for long-term arts funding. 

“We were the first to put out an actionable plan supporting sustainable funding to benefit our burgeoning arts industry and our residents, but the world is changed today and we want to minimize the impact on our taxpayers as much as possible,” said Mayor Fulop.  â€œThere is a lot of uncertainty between now and November, so we want to do the responsible thing and start making the tough decisions now so that we can better plan as we come to realize the full magnitude of the pandemic’s economic impacts.”