Members of the Jamestown City Council and administration held a work session meeting via Zoom on Monday night, April 20.

JAMESTOWN – As governments around the world continue to deal with economic uncertainty caused by COVID-19, local government across the country are also beginning to plan for the uncertainty that lies ahead.

On Monday night the Jamestown City Council joined city administration in a streamed work session and spent a great deal of time discussing COVID-19 and how prepared the city is to deal with the economic fallout.

• WATCH THE FULL COUNCIL MEETING AT JAMESTOWNNY.NET

The 2019 year-end budget summary for Jamestown, provided by city comptroller Joe Bellitto on April 20, 2020.

Mayor Eddie Sundquist told the council members that he’s talked with other mayors from around the state as well as members of his finance team and the exact impact remains unknown.

“We really do not know what this COVID-19 crisis is going to do to our city’s budget. We are projecting anywhere from a $1 million to a $4 million deficit,” Sundquist said.

Total spending for the city’s 2020 budget that was approved last November is $36.6 million. But while the city will likely see a noticeable – if not significant – budget deficit this year, a silver-lining is that the city also saw a budget surplus from 2019.

City Comptroller Joe Bellitto Monday night also reviewed the final unaudited budget numbers from 2019, pointing out that the city finished the year with a surplus of $1.4 million.  He said the biggest contributor to that surplus was the city’s health insurance costs being lower than anticipated.

“During some years we’ve had some terrible years with health insurance, but for the past three years we’ve finished in very good shape with our self-insured health insurance program. We’ve started to see some success with our wellness program that was instituted several years ago,” Bellitto said, while adding, “We can’t put total emphasis on that because people have had sicknesses and surgeries [in the past], but in total I think we’re really starting to see some positive changes.”

The 2019 surplus brings the city’s undesignated fund balance up to $3.8 million. But Bellitto cautioned that while the city does have some money in the fund balance reserve that it could use to deal with a likely budget gap, there’s also several non-COVID-19-related concerns that could quickly eat away at it.

“Miscellaneous revenues for the city pretty much remained flat. Our future healthcare liability remains at $162 million… a very staggering number. We talked about our retirement cost is still large, about $3 million, and that has been leveling off. But rates may increase next year based on how the stock market finished on March 31, which was the end of the state’s fiscal year,” Bellitto said.

Bellitto also noted that the pending appellate court decision regarding the contract arbitration ruling with the city police union could have an impact on spending, depending on whether or not the court rules the public safety union does in fact deserve a retroactive salary increase. That 4th Appellate Division in Rochester is currently reviewing that case and could have a decision in the near future.

Another big unknown is the city’s sales tax revenue moving forward. The council learned last night that first quarter sales tax revenue will likely be on track compared to past years, but any of that gain will likely be lost due to the economic shutdown that began near the middle of March.  The first quarter sales tax revenue will be known by the end of this month or early May.

Mayor Sundquist said unless the federal or state governments provides additional aid to the city because of the pandemic, city officials might have to consider taken steps to close any budget gaps, which could include layoffs, although he added that isn’t something he will pursue if he can help it.

Jamestown City Comptroller Joe Bellitto (standing) shares the final sales tax figures for 2019 with the Jamestown City Council during its Feb. 10, 2020 work session meeting.

JAMESTOWN – The city of Jamestown had another “very good” quarter for sales tax revenues during the final quarter of 2019.

A comparison of the quarter-by-quarter sales tax revenue for the city of Jamestown for both 2018 and 2019.

City Comptroller Joe Bellitto updated the Jamestown City Council this past Monday night, saying the city’s fourth-quarter payment of $1,663,443 was $94,371 more than the amount it received during the same time period one year earlier.

With the final quarter now in the books, the city now knows how much sales tax revenue was actually brought in during 2019. The total sales tax revenues received was $6,715,249. That’s $515,000 (8.3%) more than the $6,200,000 that was initially budgeted in the 2019 city budget. It’s also $280,913 (4.4%) more than what the city collected in 2018.

According to Bellitto, the average annual increase for sales tax in Jamestown during the past decade was at about 2.2%, meaning the 2019 increase more than doubled that 10-year trend.

Bellitto also said the increase in sales tax for the year follows a state wide trend. Last week the state comptroller’s office reported sales tax was up by 4.7% statewide in 2019.

With the 2019 sales tax figures reported, one of the final key pieces of the 2019 city audit is now in place. That audit will likely be completed and reported to the city council in the early summer.

Meanwhile, for the 2020 adopted budget, city officials settled on $6,500,000 as the anticipated projected sales tax revenue for the year. The first quarter report of the new year will be delivered to the city council in early May.

According to the latest numbers from Mayville, the city’s third quarter sales tax revenue was up 6.3% over the previous year, putting it an an all-time high of $1,927,439. That means through three quarters of this year, the city has received nearly $5,052,000, or about 82%, of the $6.2 million that was budgeted for this year’s sales tax revenue.  That means the city only needs $1,148,000 in the fourth quarter of the year to reach its budgeted goal. Last year’s fourth quarter payment was $1,569,000. If the city were to get that much again for the fourth quarter of this year, it would be $421,000 (6.8%) more than what was budgeted.  It would also be $121,000 more than what is in the tentative sales tax budget for next year.

According to Bellitto, the final fourth quarter sales tax figures will be known on our about Feb. 1, 2020.

Bellitto is also recommending the city council proceed with caution with the sales tax projections for 2020, saying the city has historically been conservative in budgeting sales tax revenue and that methodology has served it well because it helps to offset other revenue shortfalls as well as expenses that may come in over budget.

The James Prendergast Library

JAMESTOWN – The first of two community conversations involving the future of the James Prendergast Library will be taking place Wednesday afternoon.

Earlier this month the library board of trustees wrote an article in the Jamestown Post-Journal saying the library could possibly close down within three to four years unless recently cut funding can be restored to help balance its annual operating budget.

Library officials say recent cuts in aid by the city of Jamestown is the main reason why it may be forced to close.

Up until three years ago, the city was committed to giving $350,000 or more to the library – which help to cover anywhere between 25 to 33% of its annual operating budget. But in 2017 the city reduced its aid by $250,000 and another $50,000 was cut in 2018. So for the last two years, the libary has seen just $50,000 a year from the city, which only covers about 6% of the library budget.

Compounding the challenge is an upcoming reduction in state aid. The state library aid formula includes funding from a library’s host community and if that funding sees a significant cut, then the state aid is also cut. Library officials say that means an additional $110,000 in state aid will be eliminated from the library’s revenue stream for next year.

The library’s operating budget for this year is $817,500 (See Chart Below for 11-year budget figures). Just four years earlier in 2016 – when city funding was $350,000 – the total expenses for the library was over $1,280,000. Most of the cuts over the past four years has come out of staffing. In 2016 total salaries and benefits for library staff amounted to over $820,000. This year it is at just $556,000.

But if the library is to see its community funding fulling restored, it’s not likely to come from the city government. Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi has presented a city budget for next year that includes $60,000 for the library – a slight increase over the current year but no where near what the library says it needs. And because of the city’s own financial challenges, it’s unlikely it will be able to fully restore funding back to the $350,000+ level on an annual basis.

As a result, the library board last week said they would be pursuing a 259 vote next May as part of the Jamestown School budget vote. Under New York Education Law §259, libraries are permitted to seek funding directly from school district voters. The matter will simply appear on the school ballot as part of the annual budget vote.

Library officials said they will propose an annual tax levy of $350,000 for the library – the same amount that the city of Jamestown had been giving the library up until two years ago.

The tax rate for the city of Jamestown is currently $23.85 per $1,000 assessed value, but only 3 cents of that rate is earmarked for the library. If the 259 vote is approved, the library “tax rate” would be 23 cents per $1,000 assessed value. That would mean a property in Jamestown valued at $50,000 would pay $11.30 a year for the library.

The library attempted a similar taxing district vote in June 2016, but the total amount it wanted to raise then was $850,000. That effort failed by a vote of 1306 against and 856 in favor. The Library Board is hopeful that reducing that amount by more than half this time around, along with the message that the library could likely close in 3 to 4 years if funding isn’t secured, will lead to a positive outcome this time around.

Wednesday’s meeting begins at 3:30 p.m. in the library fireplace room. A second meeting is also scheduled for Thursday night at 6:30 p.m.

The above chart shows the Prendergast Library budget figures for the past 11 years. The information is based on past 990 Tax Forms as well as the finalized budget numbers provided at the library website for both 2018 and 2019.  Some information is listed as “NA” due to the 990 tax forms not being available for those respective years. Categories including total Expenses, total staff Salary expenses (including benefits),  Total Revenue, All Community/Grant Contributions (includes city funding), All Government Grants (including city funding), Fundraising Revenue, the % of Public Support (5-year average), City Funding total (and the % of Total Expenses it covered for the respective year), Endowment Fund Total, the amount of Endowment Money used for the respective year, and the Total number of employees and volunteers provided.

The largest disputed assessment comes from the owner of the Hampton Inn, which is situated at the city line on N. Main Street. In that case, owner Sandalwood Hotels LLC is asking the court for a $2.28 million reduction on the hotel’s $4.1 million property tax assessment.

In a separate case involving a hotel, Star Hotels – the owner of the LaQuinta Inn on West Third Street – is asking to have the assessment on the hotel building reduced by $670,000 – bringing the new assessment down to $1.57 million.
Meanwhile, Bottling Group (Pepsi Cola Bottling) at 2224 Washington St. is requesting a $725,000 reduction on its assessment, bringing it down from $925,000 to $200,000.

And an LLC known as Budget Rental Units – which owns various rental properties in the city – is asking for a total reduction of $430,00 in two separate filings involving five pieces of property around the city.

For the city 2019 budget, the total taxable property assessment for the city of Jamestown is $671,588,000, with the property tax revenue coming in at $16,012,000 – based on a tax rate of $23.85 per thousand.  If the court were to rule in favor of each of the plaintiffs and give them a new assessment at the amount each is asking for, the lost tax revenue would be an estimated $97,000.

Andrew Liuzzo

JAMESTOWN – Both Republican candidates running for mayor of Jamestown agree that city police officers and fire fighters deserve every cent they are paid by local taxpayers. But both Andrew Liuzzo and David Wilfong also acknowledge that financial challenges facing Jamestown will likely prevent public safety workers from getting all they they deserve.

• [RELATED] LISTEN TO FULL LIUZZO/WILFONG INTERVIEW

In 2019 the city of Jamestown has budgeted nearly a third of its total budget – $11 million – toward police and fire salaries and other related expenses. And a larger chunk could be on the way if a state appellate court upholds a recent state Supreme Court decision involving an arbitration ruling giving the police union a 2% pay raise. City officials say any increase the police receive in salary will also likely be given to firefighters as well, so the outcome of the arbitration appeal will be a challenge facing whoever is the next mayor of the city.

Liuzzo is currently a member of the Jamestown City Council and is the only council person to vote against challenging the arbitration ruling in State Supreme Court, as well as voting against the decision to appeal the Supreme Court decision.

Liuzzo told WRFA in our recent interview that it’s not the salaries but the healthcare and pension mandates from Albany that are what the city should be focused on.

“This all goes back to our retirement benefits and our healthcare benefits, and the Taylor Law and the Triborough Amendment. These laws and amendments have hurt upstate communities immensely. These were downstate laws that got applied to the whole state,” Liuzzo said. “My question would be, ‘Why hasn’t the New York Conference of Mayors, as a group, addressed this?’ Our current mayor was president of NYCOM, yet that question is still out there. Why wasn’t this addressed? These kinds of laws are what has hurt upstate New York Communities.”

Liuzzo added that he would also be willing to local at regional policing by trying to improve relationship with adjacent communities like the Town of Ellicott and Busti – which each have their own police force as well.

“Jamestown encompasses West Ellicott, Ellicott, Lakewood-Busti. What I would like to see is an inter-municipal police force. I would like us to negotiate instead of litigate with our neighbors and come to an agreement where we can use the existing police force we have outside of Jamestown to be the same police force. And to protect all of us. That’s one way I see of bringing the cost down, or at least maintaining the cost,” Liuzzo explained.

David Wilfong

Wilfong has served on the Chautauqua County Legislature since 2014 representing Jamestown. During his time in Mayville a report was completed by the Center or Governmental Rochester using over $200,000 in state money that provided a plan to consolidate the Jamestown Police Department with the County Sheriff’s office gradually, over two decades or no longer.

The consolidation would come at no additional cost to county taxpayers but would save Jamestown some money. That plan was never put up for a vote, let alone publicly discussed by Wilfong and his colleagues after it was completed.

• VIEW THE CGR REPORT

Wilfong said he agrees that regional policing may be better solution, though the push should come from the state, not the local, level.

” It would have been very difficult to put together a group of people that would have voted in favor of the consolidation. I don’t know if that would ever go off. I’ve seen it, I’ve read the document and I actually think it was a good proposal. But one of the things is, ‘Do we want a change?’ I don’t know if the Jamestown Police Department wants to merge and I don’t know if the sheriff wants to merge,” Wilfong said. “I did see the figures and the cost savings would be good for the city of Jamestown and a flat cost the county. But we’re talking about the county legislators and you’ve got to get them on board with their own districts. Because what they’re going to say is, ‘How does that benefit my district. I live in Silver Creek or I live in Findley Lake.’ It’s a hard sell.”

Instead, Wilfong said he’d prefer to see the effort to deal with police costs lead by the state representatives, similar to what former Sen. Cathy Young had worked on with school districts.

“I am not against it. I think to make change and to move our county forward and our state forward, we’ve got to start thinking consolidation. I don’t know at the mayor level what can be done there. I think that needs to be done more at the state level – maybe our assemblyman or our next senator. I think that is where that type of change has to come from,” Wilfong said.

The complete audio of our interview with Liuzzo and Wilfong can be found at our website.

Liuzzo and Wilfong will square off in the June 25 Republican Primary, which runs from noon to 9 p.m. and is eligible to all 3800 registered republicans living in the city.

City Comptroller Joe Bellitto (standing) reviews financial numbers with the Jamestown City Council, Mayor Sam Teresi, and staff.

JAMESTOWN – The Jamestown City Council received positive news regarding last year’s budget, as well as some promising signs for the current fiscal year.

City Comptroller Joe Bellitto went over the final numbers for the 2018 city budget and said that Jamestown finished the year with a $416,000 surplus – marking the second year in a row that revenues exceeded expenses for the budget.

For 2018, city revenue was $762,000 higher than what was budgeted, while expenses were $346,000 over budget.

• REVIEW 2018 FINAL BUDGET HANDOUTS

Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi acknowledged the hard work of the city council and city employees for working to keep the budget balanced during the year, while also giving special thanks to the State for providing additional aid to the tune of $1 million. The mayor said had that supplemental aid not have come in, the city would instead by looking at nearly a $600,000 deficit.

The public presentation of the audit came only after the city council and mayor went into an executive session.

A formal independent audit of the budget will be made later this year.

Bellitto also went over some of the first quarter numbers for the current 2019 fiscal year – with revenues and expenses both falling generally within normal budget range.

Sam Teresi

JAMESTOWN – Mayor Sam Teresi says he doesn’t expect the current budget challenges in Albany to have in impact on the city of Jamestown and its need for supplemental state aid.

Reports out of Albany say state lawmakers are wrestling with a $176 Billion budget that could be short on revenue by about $2.5 Billion. Included in the budget proposal that was presented by the Governor in January is $1 million in additional aid to the city of Jamestown so it can balance its own 2019 budget.

Because the city has reached its constitutional taxing limit it is unable to rely on tax increases in order to close the budget gap.

Mayor Teresi was a guest this week on WRFA’s Community Matters program and we asked him if there is any risk of the funding being cut as part of the state budget reconciliation process. He said that even though he has heard from anything in the legislature, he doubts the money aid earmarked for the city is at risk of being removed.

“We haven’t heard from leaders of either side of the aisle in either of the houses that the million dollars in this $176 Billion state budget, where they have to close a $2.5 billion deficit, is on anybody’s radar screen as a big step in closing that deficit,” Teresi said.

If the city does get the $1 million in additional state aid from Albany, it will mark the third year in a row that Jamestown has relied on the state to close a spending gap in its annual operating budget. It also received $1 million for the 2018 budget and an estimated $850,000 in the 2017 budget. Prior to that the city had relied on revenue sharing from its utility operations to close spending gaps in the operating budget for the 2014, 2015, and 2016 budgets.

Comptroller Joe Bellitto released the sales tax numbers for the final quarter of 2018, showing the city collected $1,569,000 in sales tax revenue from October through December. That number was $41,000 – or 2.7 percent -higher compared to the 4th quarter the previous year.

The final quarter numbers also show the city had a much higher sales tax total for the entire year, compared to what had been budgeted in the 2018 City Budget.

The final sales tax total for the year was nearly $6,435,000 – 7.25 percent higher than the $6 million that was budgeted. That total was also 5.3 percent more than what the city collected in 2017.

For this year, the city budgeted $6.2 million in sales tax. A report on the first quarter for this year is expected in early May.

• MOBILE APP USERS: LISTEN HERE

Originally airing Thursday, Dec. 1, 2018. WRFA public affairs director Jason Sample talks with Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi about the 2019 city budget that was approved at the end of November by the Jamestown City Council. In addition, the mayor offers details on why the city is challenging a ruling by an arbitration panel involving a labor agreement with the city’s police union.

Sam Teresi