By Joyce Kryszak
Buffalo, NY – Despite much agreement on a proposed budget, state lawmakers missed the April 1 budget deadline. Some county officials see it as a chance to renegotiate a better formula for welfare funding. But Erie County Executive Chris Collins said, he would just as soon leave well enough alone.
The pending $124 billion dollar budget preserves star tax rebates, increases in school funding and some other popular items. But as a trade off, the proposed budget also could include some hikes in fees and shift some costs to local taxpayers.
The welfare formula - previously an even split - would bring the share for counties up to 51 percent. That is about a million dollar hit for Erie County. But Collins said it could be worse.
The proposal also erases about five million dollars for youth detention facilities that the state originally intended to pass along to the county.
Collins said the county will now only have to carry the burden for a few thousand dollars of the detention center costs.
Still, Collins said that does not mean he is happy about the proposed increase in the county's share of welfare funding. He said the state is nickel and diming counties and it all adds up in ways that are very noticeable to taxpayers, such as much needed roadwork.
Collins said state lawmakers should have come up with a budget that would cut state costs, rather than passing the shortages on to the counties. Now, however, he said it is his job to make sure that what needs to get done in Erie County still gets done - with a million dollars less to work with.
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