JAMESTOWN – The Jamestown City Council has approved a tax cap override for the 2017 city budget.
Following a message of necessity from Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi during Monday night’s voting session, the council approved a local law that clears the way to override the state tax cap limit, should it be required in order to pass the final 2017 spending plan. The vote was 8 to 1, with city council member Brent Sheldon (R-Ward 1) voting against it.
According to Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi, Jamestown’s tax cap limit for 2017, under the state formula, is .69 percent. The mayor’s current budget proposal calls for a tax levy increase of $150,220, which equals .96 percent. That means that if that tax increase were imposed in the final spending plan, the council must override the tax cap.
Considering the proposed $35 million 2017 budget contains a $878,000 deficit, city officials must work to identify funding or cuts to offset that deficit, even before it can begin chipping away at any proposed property tax increase.
A public hearing on the override will be held at 9 a.m. Monday, Nov. 7 in the mayor’s conference room.
The Mayor reminds residents that the tax cap override simply gives the council the ability to go over the state mandated tax increase threshold and not the city’s constitutional taxing limit – which is the maximum tax levy the city can impose under state law. The constitutional taxing limit for Jamestown for 2017 is $15,844,270, which is the amount being proposed in the mayor’s executive budget.
The city council is required to approve a budget by Dec. 1.
If the Mayor would figure out how to keep businesses in Jamestown then maybe just maybe there wouldn’t be a deficit. He keeps raising taxes and the businesses can’t afford paying higher and higher taxes so they leave, which in turn takes jobs away from the people of Jamestown. Then maybe there would not be so many people needed public assistance.