Published: November 29, 2007 11:05 pm      

ERIE COUNTY: Legislature votes down borrowing

After hearing testimony from the control board on why it should be allowed to do the county’s 2007 borrowing, the Erie County Legislature rejected the proposal by a vote of 11-4 at Tuesday’s regular session.

Chairwoman Lynn Marinelli, D-Town of Tonawanda, was the only Democrat to vote for the measure, and said the rejection places the county on uncertain ground.

“I don’t know of any mechanism that will resolve this deadlock,” Marinelli said. “At this point, New York State may be forced to get involved.”

Without the county’s $52 million in borrowing for 2007, projects like the zoo, new Buffalo Bills scoreboard, payments to the Erie County Medical Center and bridge and highway improvements will be stalled.

While making a statement on behalf of the control board at Monday’s Finance and Management Committee meeting, Director Kenneth Kruly defended the board’s assertion that it can save the county money.

Control board Executive Director Kenneth Vetter upheld Kruly’s assertion.

“We believe we have made our case on saving taxpayer money without a single layoff or program cut,” Vetter said.

Comptroller Mark Poloncarz disagreed, citing that if the control board saves the county $400,000 over 20 years, with a $500,000 annual budget, the county is paying much more to sustain the board than it would make back in savings.

Kruly said the control board could borrow for Erie County and pass that debt back to the county or another state agency when it is dissolved. But the comptroller’s office contends that no other control board in New York State has ever been dissolved while it was paying off borrowed money, and that it is unlikely that track record will change in the case of Erie County.

Vetter said the control board members believe there is still time to get the sides together on this issue before a Dec. 31 borrowing deadline and will continue to work with the Legislature, comptroller, county executive and executive elect on the issue.

“There are more questions than answers at this point,” Vetter. “But sometimes in government things happen at the last minute. It’s not easy, it’s not fun and it probably shouldn’t happen that way, but that’s when things tend to happen.”

In other business, a resolution introduced by Michele Iannello, D-Kenmore, requesting the Department of Information and Support Services and comptroller’s office to investigate the status of the county’s surplus computers passed unanimously.

Iannello said she became concerned about the equipment after hearing about an district attorney investigation into the loss of surplus computers. After making some phone calls, Iannello said she got no satisfactory answers.

“The purchasing department takes care of every surplus item in the county government and that process seems very flawed,” Iannello said. “I’m looking to improve the process and have more accountability for all of these surplus items.”

The resolution gives DISS and the comptroller’s office until Dec. 15 to provide a detailed summary of the process for inventorying county-owned assets to the Legislature.

“Those items could be a source of revenue for the county,” Iannello said.

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