If the city's budget situation wasn't bad enough, the state of New York has found a way to make it worse.
New York is facing a $3.2 billion budget shortfall. And though state legislators have yet to take corrective action - Gov. David Paterson convened emergency sessions of the legislature yesterday and today - state officials have put municipalities across the state on notice: cuts are coming.
According to Mayor Sam Teresi, cuts to the tune of 10 percent could be coming to the city's AIM payment.
AIM is the state's Aid and Incentives to Municipalities program.
It's a fund through which municipalities receive money to help pay for state-mandated programs - and at $4.96 million, it represents Jamestown's third-biggest source of revenue behind property and sales tax revenue.
Cuts to AIM are part of Paterson's two year deficit reduction plan, which first targets the 18 municipalities whose fiscal years do not follow calendar years. But Teresi said Peter Baynes, the executive director of the New York State Conference of Mayors, has said those cuts are ''a precursor to similar cuts for all cities in next year's state budget.'' And that, according to Teresi, means the Jamestown City Council ''had better be ready.''
''We've been put on notice,'' Teresi said. ''It is very unlikely that we will escape the budget axe. If we don't react to this, we're being unrealistic. Regardless of what the state legislature does or doesn't do, we've got to do something with that number. We are being forced into a choice between cutting this figure on the revenue side or increasing property taxes to cover the shortfall.''
For Jamestown, that means city officials are facing a revenue cut of about $496,000 - dire news when city taxpayers are already facing a $1,020,313 increase in the property tax levy, or a tax rate increase of $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed value.
City Councilman Tony Dolce, R-Ward 2, suggested that instead of raising taxes to cover the AIM payment cut, the city look instead to its unrestricted fund balance.
''Assuming there will be some cut - whether it actually happens and how much and when - we have to decide what to do,'' Dolce said. ''Unless something definitively happens between now and the time we pass our budget, I don't know as though we can amend that number. I'd hate to see us pass this on to the taxpayers. I just don't think we can go to them and ask for more money. If we leave the AIM number as it is now and a cut is made, we can use the fund balance. It's a risk to do that, and I know the feelings about using that money, but we have to make a choice.''
Teresi's executive budget already takes $250,000 from the city's $1.84 million unappropriated fund balance. If that number is unchanged by the City Council and more is taken out to cover the possible cut in AIM, the council will have taken about $746,000 from the fund balance, leaving only $1,094,000 in the city's fund balance.
A decision on how much the council will trim the revenue side of the budget must be made soon - the city's budget must be balanced and approved by Dec. 1.
'' The honest thing and appropriate thing is to budget the cut for the full amoutn that we're anticipating and have been advised to prepare for,'' Teresi said. ''The totally dishonest and inappropriate is ignore it and hope it won't materialize. We cannot turn a deaf ear and a blind eye to what we know is coming around the corner to hit us in the face.''
