# Disclaimer

**This project describes legal practices, not wrongdoing.** The budgeting mechanisms documented
here — one-time revenues, deferred charges, special-emergency appropriations, tax abatements
(PILOTs), and authority financing — are **lawful tools** under New Jersey law. The argument of
this project is that using non-recurring revenue to fund recurring costs is **mathematically
unsustainable** and produces a recurring budget crisis. It is **not** an allegation that any
official, employee, entity, or vendor committed a crime, fraud, self-dealing, or any other
wrongdoing.

**No accusation against any individual.** This project analyzes budget *structure and practices*,
not people. It does not state or imply that any named or unnamed official, employee, or private
party acted improperly, illegally, or in bad faith. References to elected officials concern their
public conduct of public office and are offered as fair comment on matters of public concern.

**Vendors and recipients named in the data** are ordinary parties paid by the City for goods,
services, or debt in the normal course of government. Their appearance in these records implies
**nothing improper about them**. The vendor/recipient names are extracted from PDFs by automated
parsing and **may be incomplete or inaccurate** — always confirm against the linked source
document before relying on or repeating any name or amount.

**Opinions vs. facts.** Statements that a practice is "unsustainable," a "cycle," or a "structural"
problem are the authors' good-faith **opinion and characterization** based on the cited facts —
not statements of fact. Reasonable people may disagree; the underlying figures are the government's
own and are linked so readers can judge for themselves.

**Every figure is sourced to an official public record** and is presented as *the government's
own audited or projected number*. Where a figure is uncertain, stale, an estimate, or contested,
the site and findings files say so explicitly.

**Do not sum figures across findings.** Several overlap, and stocks (debt/liabilities) must never
be added to flows (annual costs). The findings files flag these overlaps.

**Currency of data.** The city's most recent full published audit is CY2020, so some liability
figures (retiree health, pensions) are measured as of 2019–2020 and may be out of date. Current
figures should be confirmed via updated audits or records requests.

**Not legal, financial, or professional advice.** This is civic information compiled from public
records for public discussion, provided "as is" without warranty of any kind.

**Corrections welcome and prioritized.** If any figure is wrong, any name is misparsed, or any
source has been superseded, please open an issue with the corrected official source and it will be
corrected or removed promptly.