Several factors could trigger a need to increase taxes

Giambra plan tenuous
Several factors could trigger a need to increase taxes
By Matthew Spina NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: 10/16/07 6:54 AM



County Executive Joel Giambra, who will leave office at the end of this year, delivers the final budget proposal of his administration Monday in Erie County Hall.
The 2008 budget that County Executive Joel A. Giambra proposed Monday, to a nearly empty Legislature chamber, contains a few soft spots. :confused:

It’s too early to tell if any of them will trigger a tax increase. But where will the money come from if these threats materialize?: :rolleyes:

• Giambra budgets no cost-of-living adjustment for the county’s unions, which will be clamoring for one from the next county executive. The union representing road-patrol deputies has gone to binding arbitration and is likely to win some raise in coming weeks. The blue-collar union’s request for a cost-of-living raise has been pending with the Legislature for months. :mad:

• Giambra assumes local municipalities will continue to take $12.5 million of the sales tax income generated by the penny added to the rate in 1985. But Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown and the mayors of Tonawanda and Lackawanna have said in a letter that local governments should get $25 million next year, and they have urged town and village leaders to unite to demand it. They will seek support from state lawmakers who will be asked to let Erie County continue levying that penny.

• Giambra’s budget for next year assumes the government will sell its tax liens to an outside company in a multimillion-dollar deal. The stateappointed control board will allow it, but only if it gets to borrow the money the county needs for longterm projects. While the control board says it can borrow more cheaply and save taxpayers money, many legislators suspect the state agency merely wants to justify its

survival for the 30-year duration of a loan.

County legislators have yet to ask the control board to borrow money on the government’s behalf and are locked in a debate. Until lawmakers submit their request, about $8 million from next year’s tax lien sale is in jeopardy. So is the money to be collected selling tax liens at the end of this year.

At the close of this year, Giambra will surrender the reins of county government to the executive who will be elected Nov. 6. Giambra says that his proposal is balanced, without raising the tax rate, and that the county should not need another tax rate increase through 2011.

There were “bumps in the road” and “a little turbulence” with county finances in his years as county executive, he said during a question-and-answer session Monday. It was a reference to the meltdown that followed his red-green budget mess of 2004, “which I very seriously regret,” he said.

As Giambra addressed the Legislature, legislators were conspicuously absent. Only Republican Michael H. Ranzenhofer of Amherst was in his seat when Giambra began. Minutes later, three others arrived from another meeting: Republican John J. Mills of Orchard Park and Democrats Michele Iannello of Kenmore and Lynn M. Marinelli of the Town of Tonawanda, the chairwoman.

Democratic Majority Leader Maria R. Whyte, D-Buffalo, and Finance and Management Committee Chairman Robert B. Reynolds, D-Hamburg, were in Albany with Comptroller Mark C. Poloncarz. They were asking state Budget Division officials to intervene in the Legislature’s stand-off with the control board over the tax-lien sale.

The nine other lawmakers did not attend Giambra’s briefing on the 2008 budget.

His proposal does not raise the property tax rate, but with higher assessed values, the government will collect 6 percent more from property owners next year, for a total of $211.8 million. While the tax rate is lower now than when Giambra took office in 2000, the government will collect more in property taxes than when he began his first term.

It also collects more in sales taxes, since the rate went to 8.75 cents on the dollar to rescue government services from the financial tailspin of 2004-05.

The state-imposed control board will review Giambra’s proposal. The Legislature will start its review Thursday, when it officially accepts Giambra’s budget during a special session and begins a series of meetings and hearings over the following weeks. Lawmakers must adopt a budget by Dec. 4.

Republicans Mills and Ranzenhofer immediately said Monday that they did not like the fact the total tax levy goes up over this year’s. And while Mills has said the government needs to invest more on its infrastructure, he did not like Giambra’s plan to spend $58 million on improvement projects next year if it means borrowing all that money.

Republicans, however, are seriously outnumbered in the Legislature, 12-3.

The next county executive will have a say. Marinelli said that on Nov. 7 she will ask the executive-elect for his input. After all, he and his team will administer the budget and deal with problems, she said.

Neither Republican Chris Collins nor Democrat James P. Keane had an immediate comment on the budget Monday. Their aides said the county executive candidates wanted more details.