ERIE COUNTY: Legislature wants borrowing deadlock resolved

By Daniel Pye<br><a href="mailto:pyed@gnnewspaper.com">E-mail Dan</a>

Nearly three years of deadlock over Erie County’s capital borrowing finally has the county Legislature fed up.

The lawmakers voted unanimously Thursday to ask New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s office to decide whether the Erie County administration or the control board should take out the loans that fund county projects. Capital improvements for 2007 and 2008 have been on hold while Erie County Comptroller Mark Poloncarz’ office and the control board duke it out over who should be borrowing money on the county’s behalf.

Poloncarz advanced $25 million to keep projects afloat last year, but could spare no more if the county was to continue paying its employees and vendors. The county comptroller contends that he has given the control board every opportunity to accept one of the two proposals his office came up with or come up with its own. Moreover, Poloncarz said the board has failed to fulfill its state-mandated requirement to issue a decision within 30 days of receiving the document.

“We put the proposal in front of the control board in December to accept or reject it,” Poloncarz said. “They did neither. They tabled it.”

Ken Vetter, the control board’s executive director, said the board did table the proposal, but that members sent over a letter explaining the decision which fulfills the board’s obligations. The recommendations were tabled because the board is still working on its own borrowing package that would save taxpayers more than $1 million, Vetter said.

The legislature is no longer willing to wait for one side to prove victorious, appealing to the state to weigh in and make a decision since it put the control board in place. Minority Leader John Mills, R-East Aurora, distilled the sentiment of his other colleagues that time and money are being wasted while county-owned roads, bridges and buildings fall further into disrepair. While the county waits, matching state and federal funds could begin to dry up leaving the county to foot an even larger bill.

“We’re in a crisis right now,” Mills said. “We’re not headed toward one. We’re in one.”

Legislator Michele Iannello, D-Kenmore, said she and other legislators attending the New York State Association of Counties meeting in Albany next week were trying to set up a meeting with DiNapoli and Gov. David Paterson. Legislators convened a special session last July to request the power to borrow without control board approval without success.

“We did ask our Western New York delegation to go to bat for us and he turned us down with a veto,” Iannello said.

Iannello said she’s hopeful a face-to-face appeal will yield better results. Chairwoman Lynn Marinelli, D-Town of Tonawanda, said the situation is dire. With contractors walking off job sites, employees and vendors going unpaid, and the potential for legal action against the county for unfulfilled contracts, a state solution must be forced by the state sooner rather than later since it was the state that tied the legislature’s hands in the matter.

“There is nothing more this legislature can do to move this mountain and get things done,” Marinelli said.

Another cash flow problem has presented itself in the form of inaccurate tax bills received by homeowners all over the county. Some municipalities were charged too much and others, like the City of Tonawanda, were undercharged. The net result is an approximately $2.5 million reduction in property tax income for 2009, but taxpayers won’t get out of paying the difference forever. Those who paid too little will see the difference added to their taxes in 2010.

Joseph Maciejewski, director of real property tax services, has accepted blame for the problem, which he said resulted from a clerical error that found its way into most of the county’s 365,000 tax bills. But that admission wasn’t enough for the legislature, who voted Thursday to have Maciejewski and Budget Director Gregory Gach go before the Legislature’s Finance and Management Committee to give a more detailed account of what has happened and what the results will be.

While legislators made it clear they didn’t want the inquiry to turn into a witch hunt, Iannello made it clear she wasn’t pleased with being associated with the current problem in the minds of her constituents.

“There’s been a big mistake,” Iannello said. “That mistake came from the executive branch. I think that needs to be stated.”

Maciejewski will be asked to disclose the cause of the error, the number of taxpayers affected, how to fix the problem and the total cost of the mistake. Gach will be there as well, to tell the committee what the total amount of property tax revenue lost for 2009 will be.

The executive’s office has stated the mix up won’t affect the budget since the money will just be collected in 2010. Poloncarz agreed that the budget wouldn’t be affected in the long run, but he’s concerned that the lack of revenue in 2009 could complicate an already-strained county cash flow.

Contact reporter Daniel Pye at 693-1000, ext. 158.

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