Jamestown City Council holds special voting session to override vetoes to the 2023 City Budget (December 12, 2022)
Jamestown City Council has voted to override all of Mayor Eddie Sundquist’s vetoes to the 2023 City Budget.
The $38.68 million budget as passed by Council on November 28, 2022 will stand following the special voting session. There is no tax increase in that budget.
Council voted 8 to 1, with Bill Reynolds voting no, to override the veto of the $75,000 increase to sales tax revenue. On the veto of the $6,500 cut to the Mayor’s Office travel and education lines, Council overrode that by a vote of 6 to 3. Councilmembers Regina Brackman, Bill Reynolds, and Jeff Russell voted on on that.
Council voted 7 to 2 to override the $5,600 cut to the engineering supplies line. Regina Brackman and Bill Reynolds voted no on that measure. And the veto of the $3,000 cut to the Jamestown Urban Renewal Agency was overriden by a vote of 8 to 1 with Regina Brackman being the only no vote. A procedural veto of the appropriations line was overriden unanimously.
Finance Committee Chair and Council member at large Kim Ecklund said due to the errors needing to be corrected in the proposed budget, it was council’s unanimous decision that all departments felt the pinch through cuts, not adding items, or keeping lines stagnant, “While I truly understand the risk in the sales tax, I also do know that there was another $52,000 that was found in error in the budget. Without showing that and having that, my personal opinion is to let those ride and come together in an over-under.”
Council member Marie Carrubba said the budget process was made more difficult this year by Comptroller Ryan Thompson resigning in July with someone new coming in.
Mayor Sundquist said this is democracy in action but he is still concerned about Council’s increase to sales tax revenues, “I do not think it is realistic and I think it sets the city up for failure for that high of a sales tax amount. Given the fact we’d only budgeted 2% to 3% and this amount incorporates almost 6, 7% to last year, it’s a little high for my taste. In fact, the County only budgeted about 5%.”
Sundquist said the 2023 budget is balanced as it now stands.
Leave a Reply