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JAMESTOWN – Officials in Jamestown noted a significant surplus in last year’s financial review while addressing local lawmakers on Monday. Looking forward to next year however, there are some uncertainties on the horizon, like inflation and rising gas prices.
Comptroller Ryan Thompson presented the financials to Jamestown’s City Council during Monday night’s work session.
“You can see our revenues were $37,358,000, which was $2.2 million dollars above the original budget,” Thompson explained, “And then from an expenditure standpoint, we were pretty much flat at $35.6 million, $69,000 dollars higher than what was originally budgeted, so pretty flat there. So from that standpoint, we end up with a surplus of $1.7 million dollars, an excellent result.”
The things that made a difference in the 2021 budget, Thompson explains, are differences in what was expected in certain aspects of the budget, versus what actually happened.
This includes sales tax, which grossed $7.96 million dollars, $1.2 million more than the expected amount.
The state highway aid, however, came in at $1.9 million dollars, over a million dollars more than expected by officials. Other losses to the city include traffic revenue.
“Parking, lots, meters, violations, down,” stated Thompson. “Some local revenues, a lot of local revenues were down about $197,000 dollars there.”
As for the 2022 outlook, Thompson looks at the ever growing price of gasoline, and how it will affect the budget overall.
“Gas is the big one,” explained Thompson. “Obviously with the price of gas going up, I’m anticipating we’ll be anywhere from $130,000 to $150,000 dollars over budget from a gasoline standpoint.”
Thompson believes that tax revenues for 2022 will offset the rising gas prices, he also added that winter preparations for the city of Jamestown are within normal amounts for the year.
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