BUFFALO, N.Y. — It's now official. Erie County elected officials are getting a raise after the next election, and there is a new way to decide if the 8.75 percent county sales tax should be extended.
Majority party Democratic lawmakers also claim it's simply fair to approve more funding for their districts while minority party Republicans say their districts were bypassed.
That is why it was a busy county legislature session on Thursday afternoon.
First off, the proposed county elected official pay hikes we have shown you will now take effect after the new election, with major raises for the next county executive going to $175,000, and for the county lawmakers themselves going up to $65,000 for that position.
Democratic Legislator Howard Johnson of Buffalo said, "We should be compensated fairly. We represent 82,000 constituents per district."
Republican Legislator Frank Todaro of Lancaster countered, ''How can we all sit here and say, 'I accept a pay raise,' in front of our constituents?"
On this pay hike plan it was a 6-5 split decision with one Democratic lawmaker, Michael Kooshoian, actually voting with the four Republicans against it.
On the sales tax extension vote, which now shifts to a simple majority instead of a super majority (which would requite a Republican to go along with the majority Democrats), it was a straight party vote in favor by the seven Democratic lawmakers, which was expected.
Still, those two outcomes frustrated the Republicans. But then there was another somewhat unexpected measure for redistribution of what GOP lawmakers say was extra money identified as capital funding for the Democratic districts. The GOP contends it's just plain old political pork for the majority.
Republican Legislator Lindsay Lorigo of West Seneca said, "We shouldn't be pushing out more pork funding, and doing it in a way that it is with federal money, and it's meant for all of Erie County ... not just select municipalities.".
2 On Your Side later spoke with Democratic Legislator Jeanne Vinal of Amherst. We asked, "In essence they were saying, 'Hey, we're not getting any of this. This is just going to the majority districts, and we're overlooked in this.' How do you respond to that?
Vinal responded: "Well, I think that if you really analyze the budget, there's such a huge percentage of the budget that goes to those minority districts. Amherst pays for police, and so many of the municipalities there get free policing from the sheriff."
Legislator Todaro remarked, "It's definitely that we're being silenced."
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz took a bit of a social media victory lap on his X account over the sales tax extension plan approval. He says residents can now cast ballots in November on that approval process approved on Thursday.
The current Erie County sales tax approved in 2006 is still at 8.75 percent which again is the highest in the state. That distinction is shared with Oneida County.