THE INS AND OUTS OF GIAMBRA'S RED BUDGET

The only budget before the Legislature is the "Red Budget." The Legislature may amend the proposed budget and must adopt a final 2005 Budget no later than Tuesday, December 7, 2004. The following are facts from the proposed 2005 budget introduced by the County Executive and filed with the Legislature:

IN -Raises for Political Appointees
· Includes a $17,168 raise for an appointee in the Budget Department
· A $9,000 raise for an appointee in the Social Services Department
· Creates a new job $80,929 job in the Social Services Department
· The 2005 Budget continues to include: Budget Resolution # 61 - Which allows for Giambra Appointees to carry over vacation credit balances and gives Giambra Appointees 4 weeks of vacation effective January 1,2005. It would take any other county employee 9 years of service to earn 4 weeks of vacation in one year.
· It retains a non-mandated position of Director of Fleet Services at a salary of $81,316

OUT -Public Safety
· Eliminates the County's homicide, sexual assault, domestic violence and narcotics units
· Leaves every single town and village in the county with no one to prosecute the crimes in their town courts and resulting in thousands of criminal offenders possibly going unpunished
· 50% of the County's probation officers will be cut, leaving almost no one to supervise the thousands of felons who are out of jail
· The Budget will cut all County fire instructors, leaving no one to train our first responders in our volunteer fire companies
· The County Executive's budget cuts all law enforcement-training instructors in the Central Police Services training academy, leaving no one to train our police officers
· It eliminates the County's law enforcement forensics lab so deeply that its head says that the lab would essentially be shut down

IN -More Office Furniture
· $58,460 for Office Furniture

OUT- County Parks & Golf Courses
· The Budget eliminates 90% of the County parks workers
· None of the County Parks or Golf Courses will be open in 2005

IN -Improvements to our Parks
· Even though our parks are closed, the budget includes $3 Million in the Capital Budget of the Parks Master Plan
· $275,000 for Grover Cleveland Cart Path Installation when Grover Cleveland Golf Course will be closed.

OUT –Libraries
· All 52 of the Buffalo and Erie County Public Libraries will be closed on January 1, 2005
· Borrowing from the Libraries will discontinue on December 7th, 2004

IN -Library Materials
· Despite there will be no Libraries open, there is $14 million for library supplies -books, media, and capital projects.

OUT -Road Maintenance & Improvements
· The County Executive's budget eliminates all highway and bridge engineers and road and bridge inspectors, leaving no one to check our bridges and roads or repair our bridges and roads
· It cuts highway road crews so severely that the County will be unable to plow most of its roads this winter or pave roads in the summer

IN -Out of Area Travel
· $135,947 for Out of Area Travel

OUT -Public Health Services
· The County Executive's budget cuts the medical examiners - office so much that the health commissioner has said he won't be able to recover dead bodies in a safe or timely manner
· It cuts 90% of the staff in Emergency Medical Services, including all of the county's 911 paramedic dispatchers and the hazardous materials and life support staff
· It eliminates all of the nurses in the Buffalo Public and Parochial schools leaving no nurses in any schools
· The budget cuts 50% of the staff and funding for dental health-a program that is almost entirely funded by grants
· The County Executive's budget cuts 60% of the public health nurses in Erie County
· It eliminates the state- funded primary care services program by 66%, leading to the loss of millions in state aid
· The budget removes funding and staff for the County's rodent control and Lyme Disease/West Nile Virus control programs
· It cuts funding and staff for the restaurant and food service sanitary inspectors
· The budget completely eliminates funding and staff for the HIV/AIDS program