Struggling Paterson taxpayers get rolled for a parade

Star-Ledger file photoJudge Jose L. Linares, pictured in this Star-Ledger file photo, ruled today the Dominican parade in Paterson can take place in September.

Beleaguered taxpayers in Paterson just got rolled for a parade. That’s right: The same city struggling to plug a $70 million budget deficit by raising property taxes 60 percent, laying off 125 police officers — a quarter of the force — and eliminating nearly 400 municipal jobs, caved in to a marching band.

Everyone loves a parade and celebrations of ethnic heritage have a long history in our cities. But these aren’t ordinary times and Paterson is reeling more than most.

At first, the city tried to do the right thing, calculating the costs of police and sanitation at parades — as low as $10,000 for the small Turkish parade and as high as $100,000 for the much larger Dominican event — and asked organizers to pay those costs upfront for the first time this year.

Turkish and Peruvian parade officials took their celebrations to Clifton. The Puerto Rican and African-American parades chose to cancel.

Dominican parade officials decided to fight back with a lawsuit, claiming the $100,000 charge infringed on their constitutional rights of assembly and free speech.

The city settled, allowing the parade to go forward on a shorter route, at no cost to organizers. A bad precedent, any way you look at it.