Erie County Comptroller Mark C. Poloncarz today released a financial report for the first quarter of 2008 ("Report") to the Erie County Executive, Legislature and the Erie County Fiscal Stability Authority.

Poloncarz said, "I am pleased to provide to the public this Report for the first quarter of 2008. This is the first such report I have issued this year, and this report provides detailed information on the County's financial status for the first three months of the year."

Please note that this report is not a budget monitoring report, which is the responsibility of the County Executive's Division of Budget and Management.

The Report shows that property tax collections and sales taxes received during the first three months of the year are on target with the adopted 2008 County Budget.

However, as the Comptroller warned in his November 2007 Review of the proposed 2008 County Budget, the Report finds that interest earnings for the County for the first three months of 2008 is lagging due to lower interest rates and market conditions which are affecting all local governments across the country.

The Report also notes that the County's general obligation bonded indebtedness is down from the same period in 2007. At March 31, 2007, the County's net direct debt was $423.6 million against $379.3 for the same period in 2008. However, the decrease is attributable only to the fact that the Erie County Fiscal Stability Authority has precluded the County from engaging in capital borrowing and the County has still not sold any bonds for capital projects approved by the Legislature, and in some cases, commenced in 2007.

Separately, Comptroller Poloncarz noted that the County's 2007 annual audit is underway, with Deloitte & Touche, LLP on-site conducting the audit. The Comptroller's Office expects to release the 2007 audit in late June 2008.

The Report may be viewed in its entirety on the county's website at http://www.erie.gov/comptroller/financial_statements.asp.