BUFFALO, N.Y. — Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz unveiled his proposed budget for 2024 on Friday.
The record high spending plan of $1.9 billion comes in at $162 million higher than the current year’s budget and increases spending by 9%.
Poloncarz cited inflation as one reason for the spending increase.
"Our costs are going up for our equipment and our supplies and we had to increase our budget to meet inflation," he said.
As well, there will be increased personnel costs associated with new contracts with certain employee unions, also helping to push county spending to a record level.
"It's a result of recently negotiated contracts with our blue collar, white collar unions and a our union representing individuals at the holding center," he said.
At the same time, however, Poloncarz is also proposing to increase the county workforce by 46 positions.
One of those newly created jobs, an Emergency Management Planner, will serve in addition to the current Director of Emergency Services position.
There will be millions of dollars more allotted for libraries, the sheriff’s department, cultural institutions, and to promote tourism under the Poloncarz plan which will go before the County Legislature for its revision or adoption by December 7.
Poloncarz is also proposing to spend approximately $1 million to deal with aspects of “climate change” claiming, without evidence, that it is responsible for incidents of severe weather in Western New York.
For property owners the proposed budget would reduce the tax rate from its current $3.93 per thousand dollars of assessed value down to $3.38 per thousand, continuing a trend in recent years made possible by rising property values.
In addition, the tax levy - the overall amount of property taxes collected by the county - will go down for the first time in ten years.
The move comes in a year when Poloncarz seeks re-election to a fourth term.
"I think that's a good thing for people at any time, but especially when we are dealing with these inflationary measures that we are," Poloncarz said.
However, the amount of the reduction, $1 million, only reduces the levy by one-third of one percent.
The levy has increased by $92 million since Poloncarz’s first year in office.
The budget also projects another year of increased sales tax collection, driven in part by inflation, as the county collects more sales tax when the cost of goods and services rise.