Erie County Democratic legislators have rejected budget amendments put forward by Republicans but the legislature’s Democratic majority did accept a budget amendment of its own.
This includes an increase of more than $3 million for things like urban initiatives and legislative earmarks but will be balanced by an equivalent reduction to fringe benefits for many departments.
Making projections for next year is difficult because many questions remain with how funding will look at a federal level, County Legislature Chair Timothy Meyers said.
“We don't know (with) the Big, Beautiful Bill, what the ramifications are with that. You know, a lot of that stuff is not supposed to hit until 2027. We don't know what it's going to look like," he said. "And again, we have to always monitor sales tax, which we always get, which comes back three months later. So, we never know. Nobody has a crystal ball to know exactly what these numbers are going to be.”
Another inclusion in Democrats’ amendments is rejecting County Executive Mark Poloncarz’s proposed $20 million for design of a new jail. But that project has not yet gone to bond and doesn’t currently factor into cash projects for next year.
Republicans’ amendments would have reduced the proposed budget by $12 million by installing a hiring freeze, requiring that anyone with more than 20% overtime would have to be approved by the county's budget director, and capping the reimbursement of travel outside Erie County.
Having their amendments fail is a disappointment and a concern for budget implications, Legislature Minority Leader John Mills said.
“It's obvious we're going to have increasing expenses in this budget, and the county executive has even admitted we're going to have doom and gloom in 2027 so why would you present a budget like this?" he said. "And why would the legislature approve a budget with the spending.”
A final vote for budget approval will be Thursday during a special legislative meeting.
