NOVEMBER 10, 2008

COUNTY BUDGET PROCESS INVOLVES MORE THAN JUST PROPOSALS, FAVORED SPENDING

The twists and turns of local government never cease to amaze me. Not too long ago, I wrote about how I thought the Control Board was an unnecessary arm of government. It was a political tool that a former governor used to stifle a County Executive he didn't much care for.

Our current County Executive, Chris Collins, wants the board relegated to a soft advisory status instead of its current, more hard-nosed, status. The thing that I find interesting was that not too long ago the County Executive was cozying up to them to get them to rubberstamp the expenditure for his coveted Six Sigma program. And they approved his request.

But now the Control Board is not taking a shine to his current budget proposal and his four-year plan. If the Control Board goes ahead and approves Collins' four year plan, they end up going soft and the County Executive gets to collect his paycheck. Throw in the fact that the County Comptroller doesn't agree with Collins' budgeting practice and it all seems to be a huge convoluted mess. A few editorial comments from the Buffalo News and the red coats of Channel 2 add even another level of confusion to this process.

Here is how I understand the situation. The County Executive low balled the tax rate – a 3.6 percent raise in property taxes, which somehow equates to $18 a year for a home assessed at $100,000. But this announcement caused an outcry and now the mood is to have no property tax increase (this is OK by me; nobody nowadays wants to pay any more for anything, anywhere). But now, by having to take money out of a budget that was pretty tight to begin with. It means that there's going to be pain somewhere.

I was told many years ago by my family doctor that you can live with pain; it's just a matter of how long you care to do so. The way I look at it is really simple. Services and programs will be cut and people will suffer. And after the State does their cuts, this region will suffer more. This pain may last for a few more years on top of this budget and the next and then hopefully the real concerns of budgeting will be addressed.

Collins' budget does nothing to talk about addressing regional concerns. In fact, his running away from the parks agreement is indicative that if a program doesn't make money for his budget, he wants no part of it. And he's also turning his back on programs that aren't mandated by the State. This may save money for the county but it hurts those that need the services the most. I'm not talking about handouts here; I'm talking about ensuring that the arms of government are big enough to embrace everyone who lives within this county. We can run but we cannot hide the fact we are all in this together.

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