City of Dunkirk budget talks are apparently taking the week off, but action on its finances is still bubbling up.

Councilwoman Nancy Nichols said Monday the Common Council had a meeting scheduled later in the day with representatives of the Office of the State Comptroller. The office is taking a hard look at city finances in the wake of state intervention that includes $18.5 million in deficit financing.

The city has not been able to access that because the Comptroller’s Office will not certify its debt until a 2024 city audit is received. The delays in that audit have been a source of continued frustration for city officials. However, Mayor Kate Wdowiasz reported at last week’s Common Council meeting that the state was finally set to have the final audit Friday.

In the meantime, the state Assembly approved a $13 million cash infusion for Dunkirk in June. The money was needed to pay off previous Revenue Anticipation Notes the city had to take out to cover its expenses. City officials don’t like the June move getting called a “loan” — they assert that Dunkirk will have to pay it back by getting less in state aid money over the next few years.

Of course, Dunkirk also slapped a 84% property tax increase on its residents this year to force their help in improving the bottom line. Wdowiasz’s budget proposal for 2026 contains another, much smaller tax hike of 2%.

The Common Council must approve a 2026 budget by mid-December, and formally started considering the spending plan on Friday. However, it will not meet again this week on the budget. Councilman-at-large Nick Weiser told the OBSERVER Friday he is hoping to have the next budget meeting Monday, Nov. 3.

The council held a brief Finance Committee meeting Friday before opening its budget talks. “We should end the year with somewhere between $3.5 million and $3.8 million” in cash on hand, Fiscal Affairs Officer Ellen Luczkowiak reported.

Luczkowiak also sought to clarify that the city is able to purchase new pumper trucks for the fire department and salt trucks for the Department of Public Works.

Treasurer Mark Woods has been absent from all of the action recently. He was excused, according to Weiser, from both the meetings Friday and the regular meeting of the council earlier last week.

Woods’ position is on the chopping block — it’s up for a public referendum on Election Day to abolish it. He’s not running again, anyway.

Woods’ Treasurer Office is also supposed to be under investigation. It was closed briefly in March, the Dunkirk Police Department reporting that upon the direction of the Comptroller’s Office, it assisted in executing a grand jury subpoena.

There have been no updates on the investigation since the office was reopened.