We’re glad to see funding for two vital programs properly funded in this year’s county budget proposal by County Executive PJ Wendel.

The first is the county fly car program, which hasn’t met its budget since the county began the program in 2017. The program was billed as being cost-neutral, something most governments who find themselves in the ambulance or EMT business find is easy to say and hard to accomplish. At the same time, the program has proven indispensable to county residents who get quicker emergency response and to volunteer fire departments who often struggle to have enough volunteers to respond to calls during some times of the day.

The budget Wendel proposed recently increases spending for the program $628,143 to a total of $3,508,038. At the same time, Wendel is projecting revenues to decrease from the $1,759,403 included in the 2024 budget to $1,400,081 in the 2025 budget proposal. In all, the local share cost will be budgeted for a $987,465 increase – in other words, a large chunk of the county’s more than $2 million in additional spending over the 2024 budget.

Wendel made the right call. The fly car program is incredibly important, especially to rural county residents who have come to rely on the fly cars for faster emergency response than can be expected of volunteer fire companies. At the same time, it’s important to be realistic about what’s being spent on the program – which hasn’t been the case the past few years when additional money than was budgeted was necessary to keep the program operating.

Safety net spending, meanwhile, is another driver of county spending increases that is running about $1.5 million over budget in 2024.

Wendel is proposing a $508,750 local share increase in safety net spending while safety net spending overall is projected to increase from $6,750,000 in the 2024 budget to $8 million in the 2025 budget. It’s an important recognition by the county that the homelessness crisis plaguing Jamestown isn’t going away anytime soon and reflects the increased costs the county will be expected to bear while plans by the county and its non-profit partners come online.

It would have been easy to hide both programs’ true costs by keeping budgeted amounts low in Wendel’s budget proposal and balance the program with fund balance spending at the end of next year. It’s easy to get into trouble doing that, however, and it’s good that Wendel’s budget reflects realistic spending for the fly car and safety net programs while the county continues to eye ways to provide those services more efficiently.