Former County Executive Vince Horrigan used to say that a government can’t simply cut its way to prosperity – it has to grow its way to prosperity.

At the time, Horrigan was asking for two actions to stabilize the county’s financial situation: an increase in the county’s sales tax rate and sale of the Chautauqua County Home. Both of those things happened and, coupled with a drastic increase in county property values, the county’s budget and its fund balance grew to the point that we now argue about how best to spend it.

Horrigan’s words are prescient now when one looks at the 2026 Jamestown budget proposed by Mayor Kim Ecklund. The city can’t cut its way to budget prosperity. Too much of its spending is tied up in salaries and benefits that are largely determined by either bargained or imposed minimum manning agreements as well as retirement and health insurance rates that are outside the city’s control. As we all know from our personal finances, nothing costs less in 2025 than it did the years before. No matter how tough one is at the negotiating table, salaries and benefits are going to go up.

The way to keep those costs from hitting taxpayers is to grow the city’s tax base and spread the increased costs to more taxpaying entities. Unlike Chautauqua County, which saw its taxable value explode, Jamestown’s is once again shrinking. The gift of Jamestown Business College to a pair of non-profits is decreasing the city’s taxable assessment by $517,700. The Buffamante Whipple Buttafaro building achieved a $1,670,000 reduction, while the Big Lots Plaza and Rite Aid properties in Brooklyn Square saw decreases of $340,000 and $800,000, respectively. All told, the city’s increasing costs are being borne on the backs of homeowners as the city’s tax base shrinks a projected $3,327,700 in 2025. That comes on the heels of an $860,000 reduction in 2024. The problem with trying to grow out way out of this mess is that development totals 1% of city spending – and that department has to deal with housing and code enforcement more than it deals with building the tax base. Police protection is 17.32% of the budget, fire protection is 13.96% of the budget, public works is 16.89% of the budget while health insurance (15.36%) and state retirement system payments and social security (13.84%) are also big cost drivers.

The city has to watch costs, and as we’ve said before, it needs to look long and hard at ways to decrease its costs. The two biggest cost drivers in the city budget are its police and fire budgets. As the city’s fund balance dwindles it must find ways to lessen the cost taxpayers pay for police and fire services – and that should include dusting off police merger efforts.

At the same time, the city must grow its tax base. It needs to find new development to restore the $4,187,700 that has been lost over the past two years. Jamestown needs a for-profit direction that helps bring properties back onto the tax rolls so that paying for city services is spread amongst more taxpaying businesses rather than homeowners.

Horrigan asked for more sales tax from the state. The city should do the same from the county. Horrigan succeeded in privatizing the Chautauqua County Home. Ecklund needs to find a similar way to reduce head count.

Another year of one-shot revenue from the fund balance in 2027 like the one proposed for 2026 means the city is back to living hand-to-mouth with no rainy day fund to balance its budget in 2028. Jamestown isn’t in Dunkirk’s boat yet, but it’s not that far off, either.