Trending
In 2023, yellow signs proclaiming the need for a SAFER Jamestown were seen on almost every block in the city.
In 2027, we all get to pay for a SAFER Jamestown.
Mayor Kim Ecklund's 2027 budget proposal comes with a 7.4% property tax increase driven by a lot of costs the city doesn't have much control over – and one big one that the city does control. We're talking about fire department staffing and the fork in the road the city has reached after hiring four firefighters paid for with American Rescue Plan Act funding and eight firefighters paid for with federal SAFER grant money.
Hiring the 12 firefighters meant the city stopped having rotating fire station closings and could have more firefighters available to run EMS calls, which increased ambulance revenue. EMS billing is projected to bring in $450,000 in 2027 – a number we think is accurate. The problem is it will cost $1.5 million in salaries and fringe benefits to keep the positions in 2027. So, taxpayers will pay $1,050,000 for the SAFER Jamestown they clamored so loudly for in 2023. Guess how much the city has to cut to get to the state's 2% tax cap – $950,320.
Following a no tax increase budget in an election year that turned out to be a flawed budget that we all paid for in 2025 with a 3.6% tax increase, taxes increased 5.5% in 2026 with a proposed 7.4% in 2027. If the 2027 budget is approved with no changes, taxpayers will have been hit with 16.5% in new property taxes, as well as increased fees, over the past couple of years.
Some of the culprits are new. Inflation has driven some costs through the roof this year for vital public services. It costs a lot more every time a city owned ambulance or fire truck responds to a rescue call or every time a public works vehicle is out fixing a street. Those are costs over which the city has no control. We all knew those costs were going to skyrocket because they've skyrocketed for us. Electric bills, even as the city moves to LEDs street lights and makes more energy efficiency improvements, are going up for the city just as they are for homeowners and businesses. Health and dental insurance costs are up 34%, even with retiree contributions to begin in 2027; and salt costs are increasing 107%.
It's saying something that the city could bear those costs with relatively little consequence to city taxes.
One situation rearing its ugly head is the loss of grant funding for 12 grant-funded firefighter positions. As we noted four years ago, accepting the SAFER grant to hire eight firefighters and American Rescue Plan Act funding to hire four more firefighters was going to come with a reckoning in the 2027 budget. That reckoning is here with a $1.5 million price tag for salaries and fringe benefits.
Fire Department calls have ranged from 7,059 in 2020 to 8,514 in 2025. Ambulance transports over that time have actually decreased from 1,292 to 1,043. Fire calls, at least as indicated by fires serious enough to require fire investigation, are typically fewer than 50 a year.
The budget is now in the City Council's hands. It's worth remembering that eliminating the former grant-funded positions will mean a return to Impact arbitration awards that, most likely, will be based on the additional manpower for the past three years. But, in our view, the positions' future should be up for discussion. In 2023, we questioned Jamestown’s ability to respond to EMS calls when the SAFER and ARPA grants expired while creating a plan that protected city residents from both a public safety and a financial perspective. That hasn’t happened, and there isn't enough time for such a major discussion to take place before this year's budget is enacted.
But the City Council needs to decide what type of fire department Jamestown needs and how many firefighters are needed to be that department. It's a hard, but necessary, discussion to have.