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A Year Of Reckoning That Never Was

This year was supposed to be a year of reckoning for Jamestown. We knew, after the City Council approved the 2016 budget, that the city would have little ability to raise taxes while staying under the state’s constitutional taxation limit. We were further convinced this would be a year of reckoning after Mayor Sam Teresi unveiled a budget with a structural deficit of nearly $880,000.

There was no reckoning. Nor was there ever the sort of serious public discussion about services and how to pay for them that Jamestown has long needed to have. News that the state is going to balance Jamestown’s budget was almost a fait accompli given that there has been such slow progress to even unveil an agreement between the county and city to begin consolidating police services and that state approval of funding to begin moving retirees from the city’s health insurance plan to private insurance plans. Actions that could have helped begin providing relief to the city’s general fund budget didn’t get off the ground early enough to effect change for 2017. That means Jamestown’s 2017 budget will be balanced not by hard decisions locally, but by the generosity of New York state taxpayers and the skill of its two state representatives, Cathy Young and Andy Goodell.

Young and Goodell, after all, will have to shepherd the promised state aid upon which the city is relying through a state budget process that is likely to be contentious and that is always unpredictable. We hope city officials are nervous with each twitchy move in Albany once Gov. Andrew Cuomo unveils his budget. Dealing with such unpredictability is what happens when one leaves one’s fate in someone else’s hands.

We have no doubt in Young and Goodell’s skill in keeping the additional aid in the budget. And, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has shown he will come through monetarily for Jamestown and Chautauqua County. Still, it is better for Jamestown to control its financial destiny rather than rely on the state. Anthony Dolce, R-Ward 2, made mention of a list of potential revenue enhancements and cost savings that city officials gave to the state. Discussions of those ideas need to begin happening, publicly, now. Doing so behind closed doors lets entire years slip away with no progress made toward the goal of returning Jamestown to fiscal stability.

If that sentiment sounds familiar, by golly, that’s because it is. We wrote the following words on Dec. 6, 2015, in this space: “Additionally, Mayor Sam Teresi has referenced some transformational restructuring initiatives that are in various stages of planning and development. Any and all ideas should be on the table — sooner rather than later. And we would hope those discussions aren’t hampered by the same old useless rhetoric that typically derails these talks. There can no longer by any sacred cows that are immediately spared from discussion. Doing things the way we always have has landed us in our current situation. We need ideas and action. And, we need those things now.”

That didn’t happen in 2016. As the Brooklyn Dodgers used to say, wait ’til next year.

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