Press Releases: 02/28/08 Mills announces Additional Springville HEAP Outreach 02/28/08 Mills Announces Orchard Park HEAP Outreach 02/15/08 Mills Announces Springville HEAP Outreach 02/05/08 Bee Column 02/08 01/04/08 Mills announces HEAP outreach efforts

John J. Mills - District 13 November, 2006 Mill's remarks on County Executive's Proposed Budget The County Executive has released his proposed budget for 2007. The budget calls for no tax increases. Like most people, I am happy about that. However, I am not satisfied. Just because there are no tax increases does not mean that Erie County can not be run more efficiently and at the same time provide increased service to its taxpayers. In the weeks since the proposed budget has been released, I have been busy every day meeting with department heads and reviewing the budget line-by-line. I have been searching for ways to make the provision of services less costly and more effective. This is a process that will continue over the next few weeks. However, I have already identified potential savings of over $30 million. Some of the savings come from cuts. For example, I propose cutting 300 positions from County payrolls. I want to be clear that I am suggesting that we cut positions and not people. Currently, 268 of these positions remain unfilled. The remaining positions could be cut through attrition. The average salary for an Erie County full-time employee is $51,263. The County pays an average of $21,501 per person per year for fringe benefits. This is a total of $72,764. Using a very conservative figure of $60,000 savings for each position cut, the budget would be reduced by $18 million. There are other ways to reduce costs to Erie County. The County should terminate the agreement that it entered into with the City of Buffalo to maintain the city's parks. The Erie County Comptroller's recent audit showed that the County is losing $1,267,000 each year due to the agreement. This is a terrible agreement for the taxpayers of Erie County. Terminating the agreement would lessen the financial burden on taxpayers throughout the County, as well as allow the County to better maintain its own parks. The County could also save taxpayers money by cutting the salary of its legislators, including myself. Erie County's Legislators are among the highest paid in New York State. By cutting our salaries 28% to make them more in-line with our colleagues throughout the state, we can save Erie County taxpayers $184,470. By reducing the number of legislative district offices from 15 to 5, we could save approximately $550,000 per year. Erie County also needs to better operate and better oversee our operations. As I mentioned earlier, one audit of one part of one department's operations revealed over $1.2 million in losses. By hiring two additional auditors to review operations in all of the County's departments, it is likely that they could identify millions of dollars in inefficiencies, perhaps over $10 million. Further, I propose that the position of Deputy County Executive be changed to more closely match the requirements for a County Manager. Such a change would result in a manager with higher qualifications being hired for the position which would be more insulated from political influences. I propose that similar changes be made for Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner positions, as well as the elimination of some of these positions. Better qualified managers will result in a more efficient government. Avoiding further tax increases is not a cause for celebration. There is a lot more that Erie County needs to do in order to provide you with the high level of service that you deserve at a price that you can afford. I will continue to seek opportunities to re-engineer County government to make it more efficient, not only during the current budget deliberations, but until the County operates as well as it can. I would like to hear your thoughts on the County budget. Please contact me at my District Office, located at 431 Main Street in East Aurora. My telephone number is 655-5650. You can also reach me by email at jmills13@erie.gov. Back to District 13 Homepage