December 3, 2008
Mark Leitner

BUFFALO (2008-12-03) Nobody, it seems, is on the same page when it comes to the Erie County Legislature's version of a 2009 county budget. That includes the county's chief fiscal watchdog, Comptroller Mark Poloncarz.

"His budget wasn't really good to begin with. This is a little better, but it's still not perfect," dismissed Comptroller Mark Poloncarz, as he compared Monday's Legislature-approved amended budget with the original spending plan from County Executive Chris Collins.

Though the County Comptroller cannot set fiscal policy, it is the officeholder's duty to alert lawmakers of budgetary problems.

"One of the reasons why Erie County's bond rating went down as much as it did is because we weren't balancing budgets on an annual basis," pointed out Poloncarz.

"In some ways, that's the way this budget goes. Because it proposes to use a fund balance to offset a deficit in one of the fund lines. That is not acceptable."

Polonczarz also cited other concerns with the $1.2 billion spending plan.

"We're disappointed that they did not include the $5.3 million for ECMC. We are also are questioning the amount of money that was allocated for overtime at the Holding Center and some other areas. We believed it was not enough in the County Executive's budget and it has not been remediated in the County Legislature's budget," said Poloncarz,who estimates the total could reach $ 5 million.

He also continues to warn that the struggling U.S. economy and the tumbling value of the Canadian dollar will hurt sales tax revenues.

Copyright 2008 - WNED