Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist will be releasing the 2022 executive city budget during a presentation at 3 p.m. Thursday at the Jamestown Municipal Building. The presentation will be streamed live on the city’s website at jamestownny.gov/live. Submitted photo

One of the first impacts of the $28 million the city of Jamestown is receiving in federal stimulus funding will be detailed in the proposed 2022 executive budget.

At 3 p.m. Thursday, Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist will release the proposed 2022 spending plan during a presentation at the Jamestown Municipal Building.

Sundquist told The Post-Journal something the city hasn’t been able to do in several years is fund significant amounts of money toward capital projects and improvements. He said the proposed 2022 city budget has more than $3 million in capital projects and improvements, which wouldn’t be possible without the federal American Rescue Plan funding.

“It’s allowed us to get more creative,” Sundquist said about the influx of federal stimulus funding. “We’re going to start to utilize this funding to build capacity to increase growth. We’re going to focus on capital projects and programs. There is more than $3 million in capital projects in this budget, which is something as a city we haven’t been able to fund in some time.”

During Monday night’s Jamestown City Council work session meeting, it was discussed how new vehicles and equipment are needed to improve public safety. He said during his budget presentation, the public will be able to learn how the proposed 2022 budget plans to fund vehicle and equipment improvements for the city’s police and fire departments.

“Priority items for police and fire have been addressed in the 2022 budget,” he said. “There is a number of capital projects we can fund through the budget next year. There is funding for police equipment and fire station upgrades. There is also funding for park projects like a dog park and a disc golf program. There will be vehicle replacement. Some of this equipment we’ve had since the 1970s.”

More good news in the proposed spending plan is there is no anticipated increase in the tax rate. Sundquist said the overall assessed property value in the city has increased since last year, which is a positive factor toward the possibility of no tax hike.

Despite the federal government stipend and no plan tax rate increase, the proposed plan still has its financial challenges. Sundquist said wage increases for city employees is still rising and the cost of the self-insured health insurance program continues to be high. He said – even with the new insurance options for Medicare-eligible participants – there is no savings from the new program built into the 2022 budget.

“We’re trying to take steps to decrease the cost (of the city’s self-insured health care program), but we didn’t budget any savings because we’re not sure how many people will take us up on it,” he said. “(Health care funding) is still a significant source of the budget. We’re trying to work with the employee units and retirees to try and lower the cost for everyone.”

Sundquist said creating the proposed 2022 executive budget was a little less challenging this fall compared to last year when he was building his first spending plan at the same time the pandemic was ongoing.

“I think during the first year when we were putting the budget together, not only were we dealing with the pandemic, but we were learning because it was our first year,” he said. “This time our revenue projections are tighter and more accurate. We’ve tried to account for new scenarios that may occur. We were creative. If nothing else, the pandemic has shown us we need to be creative with the funds we have.”

Sundquist’s budget presentation will be streamed live at jamestownny.gov/live, and the proposed executive budget will be available online at jamestownny.gov/budget.