Optimistic revenue projections for ambulance calls have contributed to the crisis in the village of Fredonia. File photo

Another domino fell in the continuing saga of Chautauqua County municipal sustainability this week. During the Fredonia Village Board meeting, a budget proposal for the 2025-26 fiscal year noted a potential 55% tax increase.

In a different era, that massive figure would be tough to fathom. But within the last week, reality hit home for property owners in the city of Dunkirk. Those bills that included an 84% hike began arriving.

For residents on fixed incomes in a city where the poverty rate is more than 25%, pain is evident. Similar developments in Fredonia only add to the region’s misery.

Despite its attitude of superiority in the north county, the village has been troubled for decades and is its own worst enemy. Its water system is unreliable and archaic, chasing out major employers and giving the community a consistent black eye. Its poverty rate is more than 20% and its economic engine in the State University of New York campus has been struggling for five years.

An enrollment decrease of 20% since 2020 has brought a ripple effect to the community. Those declines affect area landlords who rely on student rentals. It also trickles down to businesses and shops that appreciate the added foot traffic the campus historically brought.

As tax bases and populations continue to shrink, municipal governments – and schools to an extent – often attempt to go against the tide to maintain what is already in place no matter what costs get passed on.

This has put prominent north county boards under a microscope due to the major tax increases. No matter what those currently elected believe, this newspaper has glumly forecast these dark days would arrive.

When cash cows such as the NRG Energy Inc. power plant no longer generate $4 million annually in tax revenue and major water and sewer users — such as Carriage House — abandon a village, who takes on the added burden? The answer leads to the most significant problem facing those who serve as leaders and have little to no financial background: a focus filling in the gap.

This is where planning really goes awry. Municipal governments, especially Dunkirk and Fredonia, put more effort in examining ways to increase revenues. Ultimately, that puts taxpayers in a perilous situation. It is the expense line that needs the magnifying-glass treatment.

Three months into 2025, we know the cities of Dunkirk and Jamestown are struggling. Late last month, Vince DeJoy who oversees the development department in Dunkirk and did so previously in Jamestown, begged the Chautauqua County Legislature to do more to help the struggling governments though added sales-tax funding.

True to form, greedy county lawmakers offered no life preserver. They held onto their $40 million surplus and locked in the sales-tax rate at 8%.

Never mind that their constituents are cash strapped due to inflation. That is not their biggest worry.

They have a spending addiction in their $300 million annual budget that also is based on revenues. It is the exact reason why they refuse to reduce your property taxes as well.

Legislators will tell you they are being responsible. This corner, however, believes it is downright selfish.

Going back to Fredonia’s fiscal problems, residents who follow history know the deficit is tied to overstated revenues. Back in 2014, the village Fire Department began charging for ambulance calls. It was an endeavor that brought modest results.

Through the first 13 months there were $165,442 in revenues but $246,388 in expenses — an $80,946 operating loss. Kurt Maytum, who was Fredonia fire chief at that time, made clear this effort would not be a financial savior for the village.

“The bottom line is it’s not about making a profit,” Maytum said in 2015 after those numbers were revealed. “It’s about us being able to do what we have to do anyway, (and) make some money back to help offset the expenses. They’re trying to say, ‘Well, we’ve got to be making a profit with this ambulance transport.’ No, we have to do the ambulance transport no matter what; we’re the provider of last resort.”

Somehow, that premise got lost — in the department and with the Village Board. This year’s financial plan included $800,000 in ambulance revenue that continued overly optimistic projections that failed to take into account rising expenses, especially in staffing.

At the moment, it has created an emergency of a different sort. Like its neighbor in Dunkirk, Fredonia needed a loan to cover its costs throughout the remainder of its fiscal year.

That’s a deep wound — and one no small bandage can fix when looking to the future.

John D’Agostino is the editor of The Post-Journal, OBSERVER and Times Observer in Warren, Pa. Send comments to jdagostino@observertoday.com or call 716-487-1111, ext. 253.