The Jamestown City Council will have a busy night when it meets this evening in city hall. Not only will the council have it’s monthly voting session, but lawmakers will also meet to finalize the 2013 city budget before putting it up for a vote.
As it currently stands, the $33,452,000 city budget presented by Mayor Sam Teresi in early October is up over $390,000 compared to the current 2012 spending plan. It calls for a tax levy increase of $896,000 – which equates to a tax rate increase of 6.44 percent.
During the past several weeks, lawmakers have held a series budget meetings with various department heads and other local agencies and last week the council began discussing amendments to the budget, including the adding $125,000 in additional revenue to the sales tax revenue. The council was also presented a series of budget recommendations from the Manufacturers Association of the Southern Tier, the Chautauqua County Chamber of Commerce and the Jamestown Board Public Utilities which those agencies say would result in over $900,000 in savings to the 2013 spending plan. Jamestown city council president Greg Rabb has said he is confident lawmakers will be able to adjust the budget so that a tax increase – if there is one – would be below two percent.
In addition to the budget vote, the council will also act on several other items, including a resolution to borrow $1,000,000 for the purchase of new radio equipment to bring the city’s emergency services department and DPW into compliance with new federal guidelines. The money would also be used to purchase equipment for the DPW.
Also on the agenda tonight is a resolution to add 35 new 2-hour parking meters to the west end of Third Street just before the Third Street Bridge. The council will also act on increasing more than 120 city fees – covering everything from parking in the city’s parking ramps to registration fees for various recreational sports teams. Both the new parking meters and increased city fees are intended to help bring in more revenue next year without the need to further increase property taxes.
The council will meet tonight at 6 p.m. in the Mayor’s Conference Room for its work session, where it plans to finalize the 2013 spending plan. The council voting session will begin at 7:30 p.m. in council chambers. Both meetings are open to the public.
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