Erie County was wrongly charged $327,615 in state pension costs, according to Comptroller Mark C. Poloncarz. The comptroller said the error was recently discovered by his office and corrected by the state retirement system. “My staff examined the prior year charges and immediatedly noticed that the county expense was significantly higher than recent years,” he said. “We immediately contacted the state to question the spike.”

He said the charge was attributed to a county employee who retired in January.

Copyright 2009, The Buffalo News