Olean finance committee advances tentative 6% tax plan, holds sewer rates steady

The Olean Finance Committee spent its meeting Thursday reviewing the tentative 2025–26 budget and a range of municipal spending priorities, agreeing to advance the mayor’s proposed 6% tax increase as the working plan and to avoid raising sewer rates by using fund balance instead of additional charges to residents.

Committee members said the council will hold two public hearings and a full meeting before the budget vote next Tuesday; the finance committee chair described the 6% tentative rate as the proposal the body will bring forward to that public process.

The committee’s discussion centered on the revenue gap caused by lower sales-tax receipts. Finance staff said the city’s sales-tax estimate fell from about $6,000,000 in prior planning to a working figure of $5,300,000 for the coming fiscal year, creating roughly a $700,000 shortfall that the tentative budget seeks to cover in part with the proposed tax increase.

On sewer rates, committee members agreed to keep the sewer rate change at 0% rather than the roughly 5% increase earlier requested. The committee discussed shifting roughly $290,000 from the sewer fund balance (the committee noted the sewer fund reported a balance around $3,000,000) to avoid raising resident rates. Committee members described this as a budgeting decision to balance the year rather than an operational change to sewer discharges and enforcement.

Members reviewed several departmental staffing and equipment items. The police department has two positions in the tentative budget that were not planned to be filled and an additional municipal position to cover a retirement; the committee said staffing changes will be managed as retirements occur and the mayor and chiefs should bring forward transition plans so new hires can complete academy and supervised field training before incumbents leave.

Fire-department staffing and overtime also drew sustained attention. Committee members noted the fire budget included approximately $400,000 budgeted for overtime and asked the chiefs to estimate how adding a full-time firefighter would affect annual overtime spending and overall costs. The committee agreed to request a study or a departmental analysis to show whether additional hires would reduce overtime in a measurable way.

On equipment, the committee discussed police body cameras, noting an initial outlay of about $6,000 in the coming year that would rise to roughly $34,000 the following year. Several members said they view body cameras as an important officer safety and accountability tool and were reluctant to cut them to free money for one additional hire.

The committee also discussed several smaller revenue and expense items: a recommendation to keep the contractor mowing pay at $0.20 per square foot rather than raising it to $0.30 (members said the $0.20 rate appears adequate for now but can be revisited if contractors decline work), potential downtown parking revenue estimated at about $104,000 if enforcement and attendant programs proceed, and a QR-marking enforcement line estimated to generate about $78,000 if implemented. Committee members said those figures are contingent on enforcement choices and will be revisited as implementation details firm up.

Members asked for additional detail on repair and maintenance lines for municipal buildings and the city garage. The committee agreed to consider creating a small capital set-aside (or encumbrance) for general building repairs so staff could make necessary repairs without returning to council for modest reallocations.

Committee members also reviewed an airport well pump failure. Staff described the pump as old and said the likely replacement cost exceeded $40,000; the city has used a temporary solution while budgeting for a permanent repair.

Next steps: the committee chair said staff will provide requested line-item clarifications (including the revised water-tier revenue estimate and the sewer intergovernmental receivable history), and the council will hold two public hearings before the full council considers the tentative budget at a regularly scheduled meeting next Tuesday. No final budget vote was recorded at the finance committee meeting.

Ending: Committee members thanked departmental staff for work on a tight budget and emphasized the trade-offs between tax increases and service levels; they said they will continue to press departments for analyses — on staffing, overtime and capital repairs — ahead of the public hearings and the council’s vote.