In his state of the County Address, the County Executive called for the Public Benefit Corporation that is ECMC to be dissolved, and for a full asset merger to take place with Kaleida.

The same day that the County Executive was pontificating about this pie in the sky wish of his, ECMC was releasing their 2007 financial data.

They reported a $17 million dollar surplus, and announced that they would not need an operating subsidy from the County for 2008. This is despite the fact that expenses increased and less federal and state revenues came through than in past years. This is also despite that fact that Joel Giambria cooked up some ridiculous deal for ECMC to sell itself to itself, so he could soak some money out of it to cover the deficits that he created during his tenure.

So, ECMC went into a boat load of debt to bail out County operations, and jsut a few years later, they are reporting record surpluses, and turning down a multi million dollar operating subsidy from the County that put them into debt? Seems to me that the incredible performance of ECMC is bailing out the County of Erie, and not the reverse.

Collins's pie in the sky wish would hurt the taxpayers of Erie County, and furthermore would hurt the health care needs of this region. The ship has sailed, and a merger between ECMC and Kaleida will not happen. County Executive, give it a rest. You're a day late and a dollar short on this one.