Published: January 24, 2008 11:11 pm      

ERIE COUNTY: Legislature approves tax renewal

The Erie County Legislature gave Albany the green light Thursday to continue the 1 percent sales tax through Nov. 2010.

While most of the legislators supported the tax, there was a divide over how moneys should be shared with the county’s municipalities, which currently divide $12.5 million.

Legislator Thomas Loughran, D-Amherst, said the funds could be better spent if the county set incentive-based guidelines to direct where the money could be spent. He used Buffalo’s vacant housing problem as an example of where the money could be directed with county guidelines rather than giving the city a blank check with no accountability.

“This has not gone to committee, and as representatives of this body we should have the opportunity to debate a better way of accounting for Erie County’s tax dollars,” Loughran said.

Legislator Michele Iannello, D-Kenmore, likened the state legislature’s demand two years ago that the county share the money with municipalities to having a gun held to their heads. But Legislator Thomas Mazur, D-Cheektowaga, said that now isn’t the time for these concerns when the 2008 budget relies on $135 million in anticipated revenue from the tax.

“The debate should start from this day forward on how we share the revenue,” Mazur said.

Chairwoman Lynn Marinelli, D-Town of Tonawanda, said the tax constitutes a huge part of the discretionary funds in the county budget. That money is used to keep up parks and libraries, repair some roads and run the departments that provide service to taxpayers, she said.

“For timing, for the process, for services and for responsible government, this is what has to be the next step,” Marinelli said on the resolution’s approval. “This has to go to Albany so they can vote on the bills there and get them back to us for another vote.”

The resolution passed 12-3, with Iannello and Loughran in the negative.

In other business, Iannello’s resolution opposing the Grand Island tolls, which cited reasons from inconvenience to economic hardship to environmental concerns, also passed. The tolls are a double tax on residents and a blatant insult, she said.

“As we go into a recession in an area that is already struggling financially, the governor should remove these tolls so there would be one less burden that residents have to deal with,” Iannello said.

Legislator Timothy Kennedy, D-Buffalo, hailed the resolution as the first step toward a victory similar to the removal of tolls further down the I-190 in Buffalo in years past.

Contact reporter Daniel Pyeat 693-1000, ext. 158.