The Jamestown city council.
JAMESTOWN – The Jamestown City Council will likely act on the city’s 2016 budget when it meets Monday, Nov. 30 for its monthly voting session. An amended version of Mayor Sam Teresi’s $35.1 million spending plan is on the agenda when the council meets at 7:30 p.m.
The amended budget contains a 4 percent increase in property taxes, which is 1.5 percent less than what was originally proposed in Teresi’s initial budget, but still well over the .7 percent tax cap.
As a result of the high tax rate increase, the council has already approved a local law to override the tax cap and Teresi is holding a public hearing on the override Monday morning at 9 a.m. Anyone who wishes to speak on the tax cap over ride can do so at that time. The hearing will take place on the 4th floor of city hall in the police department training room.
Despite spending more than a month reviewing the mayor’s budget, the council has been unable to identify and agree to any spending cuts. Instead, it requested the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities provide a dividend payment to the city in the amount of $482,000 – more than $230,000 than what was proposed in the mayor’s budget, but also the same amount that was requested for the current budget year. After a lengthy discussion during a meeting last week, the BPU approved the dividend payment by a vote of 5 to 2.
Teresi has said that high healthcare costs, combined with mandatory salary increases are the primary drivers of the budget.
If the proposed spending plan is approved by the council, the city will be within 98 percent of its constitutional taxing limit, creating a major challenge for creating budgets for 2017 and beyond.
Monday’s city council meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. on the second floor of city hall. It is open to the public.
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