Published: July 04, 2007 03:55 pm            

ERIE COUNTY NOTEBOOK: Mid-year hearings show county on solid fiscal ground

Erie County lawmakers finished a busy week of meetings with county department heads last Wednesday, concluding the county’s mid-year budget hearings.

“The six-month county fiscal picture is solid,” said Robert Reynolds Jr., D-Hamburg. Reynolds is chairman of the county’s Finance and Management Committee, which oversaw the hearings.

Most of the issues outlined at the meetings were familiar. They included the pending tax liens sale to a New Jersey-based company which the control board still hasn’t approved, the unexpected federal mandate which forced the county to pay ECMC $8.8 million and swollen overtime costs for deputy’s manning the county’s holding center.

Comptroller releases audit results

The county received some good news Monday, as County Comptroller Mark Poloncarz released the results of an audit which showed the county ended the 2006 fiscal year with a surplus of about $23 million.

“(The results) are significantly positive developments and reflect fiscal discipline and more careful budgeting and spending than in prior years,” Poloncarz said.

The county’s fund balance is now at about $38 million, and to keep building it is critical to the county’s Wall Street bond rating, Poloncarz noted. If the tax liens sale is approved it could be another significant boon to the fund balance.

“The county must re-establish a significantly higher fund balance in order to attain credit rating upgrades and reassure Wall Street that Erie County is serious about re-establishing our credit,” he said.

Lawmakers to look at changing law

Poloncarz also sent a letter recently to the legislature asking them to change the local law which prohibits disclosing the identity of hotel owners who are behind on the county’s hotel occupancy tax.

Recently, Poloncarz identified two such offenders who were behind — one by about $50,000 and the other by more than $500,000 — but has said he can’t disclose those names publicly because of language in the county charter. A law change could put public pressure on hotel owners to follow the law.

Contact reporter Dan Miner at 693-1000, ext. 115.

        

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