The government in Chautauqua County under the most fiscal duress is, believe it or not, Lakewood.

That came as a surprise to us, too, since common sense dictates that Jamestown is typically the most financially pressured government in our neck of the woods. According to the state Comptroller’s Office fiscal stress score, however, Lakewood’s score of 37.9 is slightly higher than the 34.6 registered by the city of Jamestown when the rankings were released a couple of weeks ago.

That ranking should be of concern to Lakewood Village Board members and whoever becomes the village’s next mayor. The state’s Fiscal Stress Rankings measure nine financial data points as well as a myriad of data points that comprise a municipality’s environmental The village’s meager $325,097.90 fund balance after passing its 2018-19 budget, which used more than $150,000 to bring the spending plan into balance, leaves the village with few enough reserves for the Comptroller’s Office to be concerned in its fiscal stress rankings. The other major area of concern, as far as the Comptroller’s Office is concerned, is the village’s back-to-back years with an operating deficit. Lakewood finished 2016-17 with a deficit of $29,342.28 and $55,751.37 in 2017-18.

Luckily for Lakewood, its environmental scores are good. The Fiscal Stress Rankings note the village’s population loss (3.2 percent from 2011 to 2016), its percentage of residents under the age of 18 and over the age of 65, and home values, which have only gone up 4.73 over the past five years. In the Comptroller’s Office’s eyes, those concerns are minor when considering the village’s thriving tax base fed by Chautauqua Lake and its share of Fairmount Avenue’s continued business boom, its low unemployment rate, lack of reliance on state and federal aid to pay for village services.

The fact that the financial environment in Lakewood is strong should indicate that corrective action at the board level will also relieve any possible fiscal stress. The Village Board and the next mayor should keep the Comptroller’s Report in mind when preparing next year’s village budget.