How Ridgefield is run
Who runs Ridgefield, what it costs, and where your money goes
The city manager, council pay, the budget, your property tax bill and who provides each service, from Ridgefield's own public documents. Every number links to its source and says which year it describes. Checked Oct 11, 2026.
Who runs Ridgefield
The elected mayor heads the city government and appoints its top administrator and department heads. The council passes laws, adopts the budget and sets the tax rate.
What they are paid
Ridgefield city staff
78 full-time-equivalent positions. 2026 adopted budget (full-time employees, Current Fund). Full-time employees in the 2026 Current Fund budget, up from 73 in 2025. The Swim Pool Utility has 3 more. Borough of Ridgefield · Apr 27, 2026
The salary ordinance sets pay ranges by position and the user friendly budget gives pay totals by employee group. We found no list of individual employee pay. We name pay only for elected officials and the city manager.
Is Ridgefield in the red?
Cities must pass a balanced budget, so "profit" and "deficit" mean something different here. The useful questions: does the city's everyday money (the general fund) cover its everyday costs, how much does it keep in savings compared with its own target, and how big are its pension and debt bills.
The city's own outlook
The 2026 budget uses $2.47M of surplus, down from $3.18M in 2025. At the budget hearing, officials said that if the 2025 surplus loss of about $2.4M continued, the surplus would have lasted roughly two years. Health insurance rose about 24%. The municipal tax rate goes from 0.469 to 0.501, about $286 more for the average home. Borough of Ridgefield · Apr 27, 2026
Savings
Unassigned general fund balance: $4M (2025-12-31). Borough of Ridgefield · Mar 18, 2026
Why we skip the "budgeted deficit": many cities plan to dip into savings, then spend less than planned. The audited result tells you what really happened.
Where the money comes from and goes
The general fund only: the city's everyday money for 2026.
Comes from
- Property tax for municipal purposes$14.2M · 50%
- State aid (energy receipts tax)$5.6M · 20%
- Fund balance (surplus) used$2.5M · 9%
- Meadowlands tax-sharing payment$1.3M · 5%
- Library property tax$924,416 · 3%
- Payment in lieu of taxes, 1000 Route 46 East$588,750 · 2%
- Municipal court fines$442,000 · 2%
- Delinquent taxes$390,000 · 1%
- Other (investment interest, fees and permits, sewer charges, property rent and others)$2.6M · 9%
Goes to (2026)
- Police salaries and wages$4.8M · 17%
- Employee health insurance$3.9M · 14%
- Debt service$2.8M · 10%
- Sewage treatment (Bergen County Utilities Authority)$2.2M · 8%
- Road repairs and maintenance salaries$1.7M · 6%
- Police and fire pension contribution (PFRS)$1.5M · 5%
- Public library$924,416 · 3%
- Reserve for uncollected taxes$910,400 · 3%
- Other (administration, other public works, garbage, insurance, utilities, other pensions and others)$9.7M · 34%
Your property tax bill: who gets it
Ridgefield collects one property tax bill and passes most of it on. Of the 2025 rate, about 57% went to the local schools and about 14% to Bergen County. The borough's own share, including the library, was about 30%.
30¢
of each property-tax dollar goes to the city of Ridgefield
- Ridgefield Board of Education (local schools)0.964 · 57%
- Borough of Ridgefield (municipal purposes)0.469 · 28%
- Bergen County0.22 · 13%
- Ridgefield Public Library0.031 · 2%
- Bergen County open space0.01 · <1%
- Total ($ per $100 of assessed value)1.694
2025 tax rates for a property in the Borough of Ridgefield (Bergen County). Borough of Ridgefield · Jan 1, 2026
Who provides your services
Not everything in Ridgefield is run by the city. Who provides a service decides whose budget pays for it and whose election decides it.
- PoliceThe cityRidgefield Police DepartmentBorough of Ridgefield
- FireThe cityRidgefield Fire DepartmentThe 2026 budget lists 46 part-time firefighters and no full-time ones.Borough of Ridgefield · Jan 1, 2026
- Garbage, recycling and yard wasteThe cityRidgefield Department of Public WorksBorough of Ridgefield
- Streets and snow removalThe cityRidgefield Department of Public WorksBorough of Ridgefield
- Sewage treatmentSeparate districtBergen County Utilities AuthorityBorough of Ridgefield · Apr 27, 2026
- Public healthThe cityRidgefield Health DepartmentBorough of Ridgefield
- Swimming poolThe cityBorough of Ridgefield (Swim Pool Utility)Borough of Ridgefield · Apr 27, 2026
Compared with similar cities
The cities in this state closest in population that we cover. Read it for scale, not as a ranking: cities provide different services.
| Per city | WestwoodNJ | WanaqueNJ | RidgefieldNJ | BellmawrNJ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Residents | 11,365 | 11,418 | 11,547 | 11,874 |
| Top administrator's base pay | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Council member pay | Not confirmed | $5,970 | $4,500 | Not confirmed |
| General fund per resident | $2,038 | $1,626 | $2,462 | $1,623 |
| Debt per resident | $967 | $2,612 | $2,408 | $2,239 |
| Unfunded pension per resident | $1,298 | $840 | $1,323 | $975 |
| City staff per 1,000 residents | — | 5.3 | 6.8 | 7.6 |
Figures as shown in each city's section, divided by its population. Years differ by state, and pension figures are measured differently in each state (each city page says how).
What Ridgefield publishes
What a resident can find online today. A "no" is something you can ask the council to publish.
- Yes: Adopted budget posted onlineThe 2026 adopted and introduced budgets and user friendly budgets are posted, with prior years back to 2011. Borough of Ridgefield
- No: City manager's contract findable onlineThe January 2026 resolution appointing the Borough Administrator states no pay. The salary ordinance gives only a range of $20,000 to $185,000. Borough of Ridgefield · Jan 1, 2024
- Yes: Council votes recorded member by member onlineMinutes list each council member's roll call vote, including on the 2026 budget adoption. Borough of Ridgefield · Apr 27, 2026
- Yes: Council pay stated in a public document Borough of Ridgefield · Jan 1, 2024
- Partly: Employee pay published Borough of Ridgefield · Jan 1, 2024
Questions to ask your council
- The Current Fund balance fell from $6.43 million to $4.02 million in 2025, and the 2026 budget uses $2.47 million of it. How will the borough rebuild its surplus?
- Employee health insurance is budgeted at $3.9 million in 2026 after a reported 24% increase. What options is the borough weighing to control that cost?
- The Energy Receipts Tax brings in $5.56 million, about a fifth of the budget, and officials said it has not grown in years. How would the borough cover a cut in that aid?
- The borough owed $27.8 million in bonds and notes at the end of 2025, about a quarter of it in short-term notes. When will those notes be converted to long-term bonds, and what will that do to yearly debt service?
The budget year is the calendar year. The council approved the 2026 budget on March 23, 2026, held the public hearing on April 27, 2026, and adopted the budget that night by Resolution 138-2026. See who is running for council
Help decide what comes next
What do you want to know about Ridgefield next?
One tap, no sign-in. We count answers; we never show who chose what.
Every number here was checked by hand against the linked document. Cities publish on different schedules, so years differ between sections; each figure says which year it describes. Spotted something wrong or out of date?
See something wrong? Report an error
Something wrong or missing? Tell us what and where, with a link to a source if you have one. Reports feed the next verification run.