OBSERVER Photo by M.J. Stafford Dunkirk City Attorney Elliot Raimondo went over the city’s financial problems Monday at a Common Council Finance Committee meeting. Behind him is Mayor Kate Wdowiasz.

Dunkirk City Hall is apparently depending on approval of a state loan to meet an upcoming Revenue Anticipation Note repayment.

City Attorney Elliott Raimondo went over options for repayment of the note — a $13.6 million expenditure due July 24 — at a Common Council Finance Committee meeting this week.

“Obviously this city does not have money for the $13.6 million,” Raimondo said. Without a loan from Albany, the options are refinancing the debt or defaulting on it.

However, “it appears the state is taking the decision away from the city and taking on the debt as a form of loan,” he said.

The loan must pass the state Assembly but it’s backed by the Democrats who control the chamber. On Monday evening, passage of the loan was delayed in the Assembly and could be facing additional modifications.

The Revenue Anticipation Note issued in 2024 and due in July was used to repay yet another RAN that came out in 2023, Raimondo said. The 2023 RAN covered operating expenses under a budget shortfall.

Raimondo said some of the rest of the 2024 RAN was to pay the county and the city school system its proper tax shares, which the city was behind on.

Mayor Kate Wdowiasz added that she held onto $6 million from that RAN so everyone could get paychecks at the end of 2024.

She stated the council needs to start paying back interest owed to the state retirement system.

“We have to start catching up on these bills,” Wdowiasz said. “We can’t continue to have these gain interest every year.”

Raimondo, who took office with Wdowiasz’s administration at the start of 2024, criticized past city government for its handling of the NRG plant shutdown. Instead of raising taxes to make up for the loss in revenue, Dunkirk kept taxes the same and borrowed money, he said.

However, he lectured, borrowing catches up — and now, for Dunkirk, “the piper needs to be paid.”

Raimondo was clearly hoping Albany will help pay that piper, stating the loan could get approved as soon as that day. Nodding to Republican council members Nancy Nichols and James Stoyle, who oppose the loan, the attorney said that from what he had heard, not a single Republican in the Assembly will support it.

Nichols and Stoyle glared back at Raimondo with sour faces, saying nothing.

Raimondo went on to point out that even if the state loan is not approved, the city is still liable for $13.6 million on the 2024 note. The council would need to pass a resolution seeking a private loan to repay it, if the state does not come through, he said.

Editor John D’Agostino contributed to this report.