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Jamestown Needs Decreased Reliance On State Funding

For the second consecutive year, the city of Jamestown has booked a surplus.

The city’s recently completed independent audit for 2017 showed a surplus of $1,337,245, bringing the city’s unassigned fund balance to about $1,849,000. The city managed to spend about $500,000 less than it budgeted while receiving more revenues than it expected. Auditor John Trussalo also noted the city is in good position relative to the state’s constitutional debt limit, decreased its overall debt in the past year and its bond rating is considered upper-medium quality.

That’s all good news. After all, no government should be spending more money than it receives, and a city that has struggled as much financially as Jamestown has over the past several years should be doing all it can to lower its debt.

Here’s the bad news. In each of the last two years, the state has had to pledge nearly $1 million to the city in additional state aid so that the city could have a balanced budget to start the year. The 2017 surplus is due, in large part, to the generosity of Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the convincing case Mayor Sam Teresi has made that the city is working to restructure its operations so that the city remains viable in the future.

Jamestown residents should hold their applause until Teresi unveils his budget in October. For all of the good news in Trussalo’s audit, Jamestown won’t be out of the woods until additional money from the state isn’t needed.

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