DUNKIRK, N.Y. (WKBW) — Lawmakers in the City of Dunkirk voted to approve an 84% property tax hike on Saturday, a decision that frustrated many taxpayers and business owners.
Dunkirk councilman at-large Nick Weiser told me this final decision to increase property taxes by 84% came after the city council voted to override the original proposal by Mayor Kate Wdowiasz that would have increased property taxes by 108%.
"If I were to describe it in one word, I would say unprecedented," Weiser said in an interview with 7 News earlier this month.
Q: “What is going into this tax increase that residents are going to get out of it?”
Weiser: “This is an effort to close the $5.6 million gap, to fill a $5.6 million budget deficit, and so we are not including new services.”
Weiser told me that the budget deficit was caused by years of the city’s failure to balance the budget properly over the past 30 years, and as a result, this change is here to stay.
One taxpayer has already started a Change.org petition, saying this hike, combined with inflation and the cost of living, will make it nearly impossible to stay financially afloat.
I reached out to Mayor Wdowiasz. I was told she was unavailable for comment and could not provide any statement.
“The tax rate historically had hardly moved for almost 30 years. Meanwhile, inflation continues to drive prices up and drive up expenses,” Nick Weiser said. “I’m frustrated by this [tax increase] number too… I can assure you that no one in that room wanted to have to make this decision. This is a consequence of many years of decision making.”
“Everything has increased; I don’t know that I can handle this hike,” Demetri’s Restaurant Owner Shirlene Miller said. “I don’t understand why it wasn’t raised a quarter-percent last year or the year before. Why wasn’t it slowly raising?”
“Through the soup kitchen, we serve about 4,000 meals a month… We have seen an increase steadily since Covid of people and families that we have never seen before asking for help,” Chautauqua County Rural Ministry Executive Director Bridget Majka said. “It’s going to be harder and harder for people to purchase things like food and clothing if they want to keep their homes.”
