OBSERVER Photo by M.J. Stafford Dunkirk Mayor Kate Wdowiasz, left, confers with Common Council members Nick Weiser and Nancy Nichols after presenting a 2025 budget proposal in September.

Dunkirk Mayor Kate Wdowiasz is vetoing Common Council amendments to her 2025 budget. This sets up a whirlwind of behind-the-scenes negotiation before the council meets at 11 a.m. Saturday to finalize the spending plan.

Wdowiasz told the OBSERVER Thursday afternoon her veto message was imminent. Councilperson-at-large Nick Weiser said Thursday night it was not formally filed yet with the city clerk, but is expected Friday morning.

The council will then meet Saturday to finalize the budget. By law, the budget must be passed by Dec. 15, which is Sunday.

“We are still in the process of having discussions and working to negotiate a final form of the budget,” Weiser said. Since the council’s Dec. 3 meeting where that body passed the budget amendments, “Some of the numbers have been shifting and we’ve been working to get a final budget that will likely be reflected in compromises by both mayor and council,” he said.

Wdowiasz said, “It is my understanding that council has additional amendments they want to propose at the meeting Saturday.”

Weiser said, “I think we’ll all have a sense before we walk in” to Saturday’s meeting about the final details of the budget.

“There have just been a lot of day to day conversations about it” among city officials, he said.

One of the problems Wdowiasz had with council’s Dec. 3 amendments is that they counted on revenue from a change in water and wastewater billing that hasn’t happened yet. Weiser suggested Thursday the council “may shift away from that idea for the time being” in order to get the budget passed.

Wdowiasz’s initial budget proposal in March socked Dunkirk taxpayers with an approximately 108% tax hike. According to Weiser, council’s amendments got that down to about 69%.

However, once everything is finally settled Saturday, it will be a different number, he said.