City Hall in Jamestown looks beautiful at night with decorative uplighting.

No matter how pretty the building looks, however, one can’t argue that the timing of the work is far from a work of art.

At a time when unemployment in Chautauqua County is in double digits and when thousands of people are still struggling to pay for utilities and other necessities, installing lights on City Hall looks like an extravagance even if the city didn’t pay for the work itself. The money came from state Downtown Revitalization Initiative money awarded to the city in 2017.

The decorative lighting project being done at this moment in time is indicative of a bigger problem that has nothing to do with city officials and their project, but has everything to do with Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaking out of both sides of his mouth.

While the governor is screaming for aid from the federal government to balance the state’s budget and withholding 20% of state aid to schools and service agencies, he then tells localities to go ahead and spend the state’s money on non-essential items. If we weren’t wasting money on frivolous items, then we wouldn’t need to beg the federal government for so much aid.

But rather than have the tough, but necessary talk with cities and take away their fun money, it’s easier to lay the state’s budget problems on the doorstep of President Donald Trump and Congress.

Surely, if Cuomo can use executive orders to close businesses and schools, he can use executive orders to stop payment on checks for non-emergency items like decorative lighting in Jamestown.