On Monday, Dunkirk Common Council will be meeting to approve the 2026 budget proposal that totals more than $29.5 million. Even if the legislative body approves the document, the public needs to know it is flawed.

Last month, the state comptroller issued a critical and scathing report on the spending plan. “City officials do not have accurate, complete and up-to-date accounting records,” the November letter from the office stated. “As a result, city officials do not know the city’s current financial position and cannot properly monitor the city’s cash flow or deteriorating financial condition.”

Knowing the history and $16 million deficit the city has been facing for two years, we put much more faith into what comes from Thomas DiNapoli’s office than council members. Most of these elected to office could not be trusted with counting loose change let alone overseeing a spending plan that totals almost $30 million.

Consider this recent comment from outgoing council member Nancy Nichols regarding a city garbage fund account that she said “was established for purposes — to have monies to purchase a packer every other year or three years, and to pay for wages for six personnel, to run the packers. We don’t even know what exact dollar amount is in this account, and we’ve been asking for this figure for years and we never get any answers … so we actually need to know what that fund balance is in that account and it should have quite a substantial amount in it. Do you have that information?”

At that point, Mayor Kate Wdowiaz stated the obvious. “We are in a current deficit, I’m not sure where you think we have a fund balance anywhere.”

We do not need a magnifying glass to see the problem. Nichols’ sentiments proves the lack of understanding this council has when it comes to the reality of the big bucks.

After Monday, Dunkirk will likely have a spending plan in place for the new year. But we have no confidence that it is realistic on the expense side, especially when it comes to the apparent underfunding of fire and police employee wages and overtime.

Those wishful numbers will likely equal more tax hikes — hopefully not of the 84% type — but still significant.