Lawmakers to get budget suggestions

11/16/08 05:28 AM

By Matthew Spina
News Staff Reporter

Erie County’s elected leaders often complain that the state-appointed control board shoots down budgets and four-year financial plans without suggesting how to fix them.

The control board has now come around and will provide specifics on how it thinks legislators can close upcoming budget gaps.

“Crisis is opportunity,” control board Chairman Robert M. Glaser said in a letter to the Legislature’s chairwoman, Lynn M. Marinelli, D-Town of Tonawanda. “And we are looking to take this opportunity to put forward some guidance to help the county take steps necessary to regain good long-term financial footing.”

He said the control board, formally known as the Erie County Fiscal Stability Authority, will create a document for lawmakers, County Executive Chris Collins, Comptroller Mark C. Poloncarz and other county stakeholders. “We will keep you apprised of our progress,” he said.

Marinelli, Collins and Poloncarz had complained the control board was not performing the role described in the state legislation that created it.

While the law says the control board “shall” formulate and adopt modifications to four-year financial plans “as necessary,” board members for years have rejected the county’s budgets and four-year outlooks without modifying them.

In his letter, Glaser repeated that the control board and its lawyers interpret the law differently and do not believe they must formulate a plan, and they will not now impose one.

“Though under the act we are not required to formulate a plan, we believe that we can be of some assistance to the county in working through the difficult fiscal times we are all facing as a result of the economic conditions in the country and New York State,” he said.