Mayor Kim Ecklund’s 2026 State of the City address well describes Jamestown’s financial status – too little money to pay too many bills.

As we’ve written before, the story is familiar. Between 2021 and 2023, minimal tax increases largely paid for with ARPA-related lost revenue funding has now left essential services underfunded and created a structural imbalance that persisted. In 2024, a 1.44% tax rate reduction as well as unbudgeted costs, further weakened the city’s financial footing. The city has relied on its fund balance, one-time revenues like ARPA funding or temporary state aid to balance its budget. The ARPA funding is gone, additional state aid isn’t likely and the city’s fund balance is dwindling.

“Together, these factors continue to impact the city today, reducing fiscal flexibility, increasing dependence on reserves, and limiting the city’s ability to sustain services and plan for the future,” Ecklund said in the State of the City. “Collectively, declining revenues, rising fixed costs, reduced fund balance, expired one-time funding, audit delays, and a shrinking tax base underscore the urgency of disciplined fiscal management and sustained state advocacy. Without corrective action, continued reliance on reserves will erode financial stability and limit the city’s ability to maintain essential services, respond to emergencies, and invest in the infrastructure and equipment required to support the community.”

It’s a bleak, yet familiar story.

Where Jamestown is lucky is that Ecklund and the City Council know the depths of the financial issues the city faces, unlike the relative shock that many Dunkirk officials expressed when the depths of the north county city’s financial issues were revealed. But it will be in how Jamestown deals with the structural issues in its budget that will show how different from Dunkirk it really is. Dunkirk officials didn’t right-size its budget in the wake of NRG’s closure. Ecklund’s State of the City shows the city understands its problem. The real unanswered questions are in how the city will try to right-size its budget.

The answer, as always, lies in how the city streamlines its budget. Ecklund points a finger at disappointing EMS revenues placing an additional strain on the city budget. That may be a cut that can be made – though it decreases response times for those who need to be taken to the hospital. As has been the case for the past two decades, fixing the city’s budget is one of two paths – increasing revenues that aren’t property taxes or cutting positions. Doing nothing brought Dunkirk to the brink of a control board. Jamestown could find itself in the same position if something doesn’t change soon.

Unfortunately, in most businesses, the largest expense line is payroll. However, city governments don’t wanna touch that and sometimes can’t due to union contracts. However, when revenue is not in an upward trend, something has to be done to the largest expense line and it’s unfortunate but this is the reality. It’s the reality in a private business every year.