Comptroller discusses overall city budget
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Budget season has returned for the city of Jamestown, and recently city comptroller Erika Thomas presented the highlights of both her department's budget and the overall 2027 budget to city council.
Beginning with the overall budget, Thomas highlighted sales tax quarterly reports, other projected revenue increases such as EMS revenue and adult use cannabis tax, and no discretionary capital spending being included in the budget besides CHIPS funding and the rest of the project regarding the HVAC controls for city hall that began in 2026. Thomas also briefly discussed health insurance increases, which she said is all preliminary right now.
"I'm waiting for some additional information," Thomas said. "I've pushed back at the broker. I've asked them some additional questions, wanted to see if they could get more data into the calculations so I have a better comfort zone as far as that."
The last details that have gone into those calculations are from July and Thomas has asked for September numbers to be included in there as well.
Thomas discussed increases in retirement rates, which she said are not as steep as what has been seen in the past few years, and noted the budgeted increase in salaries, sharing with council members a chart showing where the salary increases fall.
"It's not all somebody got a raise," Thomas said. "It's not that. It's made up of a bunch of different factors. Primarily, the biggest one, is the fact that the firefighter salaries, the ARPA and SAFER are no longer grant funded. SAFER ends in February and ARPA is done at the end of the year."
Thomas also highlighted changes in overtime and gave a summary of the city's appropriations, big revenue numbers such as state aid and CHIPS, a history on the city's tax levy, a summary of expenses and payroll, including property insurance expenses, and other items such as retirement history for the police and fire department before going into her own department's budget.
Thomas said she has no retirement plan in 2027, but she does have one for 2028, which is reflected in her budget. With the complicated procedures and things that people need to know and learn, she said she needs time to bring somebody in and get them trained.
"So that's about six months of training, with a May 2028 retirement plan," Thomas said.
Other items from Thomas's own budget that she briefly highlighted included dues and subscriptions, which she noted some increases in such as stationary and postage and for salary, which she was requested to increase by a supervisor in the office.