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The city of Dunkirk is "pretty close to even on revenue and expenses on the current budget," Fiscal Affairs Officer Ellen Luczkowiak said this week.
Luczkowiak told a Common Council Finance Committee meeting that the city is actually ahead on revenue by about $320,000. The city is getting state Consolidated Highway Improvement Program (CHIPS) money and an installment of sales tax revenue in December as well, she said.
The finance officer projects a cash flow of $5 million at year's end. "But that has to get us through to May," she noted.
Predicting that "it's going to be very tight," Luczkowiak pointed out: "We have bond payments, we have payroll, we have other things that need to be paid."
She said that moving up the city property tax collection by even a month would help the situation. City officials have recently floated moving up the city's May tax collection to as early as January.
Later in the meeting, City Assessor Erica Munson inquired if Mayor Kate Wdowiasz's administration is pursuing further financial assistance from New York. The state government in Albany has already loaned Dunkirk millions of dollars, but an Assembly-backed aid package fell through.
"We are seeking grant assistance as well as other public assistance," Comptroller Tracy Smith-Dengler replied. She said Wdowiasz is in touch with "our handlers" in state government.