On their way out of office, two Erie County legislators will attempt to force through a law, opposed by County Executive Chris Collins, to give tax breaks to homeowners who improve their residences.

A public hearing on the issue has been set for noon Thursday on the fourth floor of Old County Hall, 92 Franklin St.

The bill from Legislators Michele M. Iannello, D-Kenmore, and Robert B. Reynolds, D-Hamburg, will probably draw support from at least a simple majority of lawmakers and perhaps a two-thirds majority.

However, a vote to override the county executive’s expected veto probably would not occur until next year, and the Collinsbacked legislators who take office Jan. 1 could provide the decisive votes.

Kevin R. Hardwick of the City of Tonawanda, the Canisius College political science professor who defeated Iannello at the polls in November, is one of those incoming legislators.

“If the county executive vetoes it, right now I have to say I would sustain that veto,” the Republican said, explaining that the government’s finances will be strained as 2011 approaches. “Down the road, I would not be averse to dusting it off and looking at it again under different circumstances.”

Newly elected Republican Dino J. Fudoli of Lancaster will represent District 5.

“My gut reaction tells me that I want to look out for the taxpayers, and if we can encourage people to put money into their homes, and if we can give them a little bit of a tax break as an incentive to do that, I don’t see how I can go against that,” he said.

But he, too, expressed concern about the loss of government income and said, “I can’t tell you at this point which way I would vote on that.”

Under the proposal, county government would delay taxing the expensive additions—those worth up to $80,000 — that raise the taxable value of single-family and two-family homes.

Rather than taxing, say, a $25,000 addition as soon as it goes on the tax rolls, the county would exempt the improvement from taxes in the first year, then phase in the tax wallop at 20 percent a year over the next five years, effectively taking six years to fully tax the addition.

The idea has been endorsed by the leaders of groups that encourage investment in challenged neighborhoods. The main sponsors, Iannello and Reynolds, say that it would create jobs among home contractors and promote investment, working much like the tax breaks given to businesses for their job-creating expansions.

Collins, who grants tax exemptions to businesses from his seat on the county Industrial Development Agency, opposes the measure for a few reasons. To balance future budgets, Erie County is banking on property values to increase by 4 percent a year and needs the added revenue.

Further, Collins aides ask, why should one set of property owners supplement the taxes of others? And they wonder whether the modest value of the tax break would persuade homeowners to improve their properties.

With the county’s tax rate at $5.03 per $1,000 of assessed value, the first-year tax savings for a $25,000 addition is just about $126.

The Legislature has already approved the concept in theory by passing a resolution that asked the county attorney to draft a law to make it happen. But that vote occurred as Collins was signaling his opposition.

Two Republican legislators, Edward A. Rath III of Amherst and John J. Mills of Orchard Park, have expressed concerns with the law. However, a third GOP legislator, Raymond W. Walter of Amherst, said he favors it and probably would vote against a Collins veto.

Iannello, fearing that the Collins-appointed county attorney would not produce a draft of the law this year while she’s still in office, asked a lawyer for Legislature Democrats to write it instead. Iannello expects the bill to come to a vote Dec. 17, the Legislature’s last scheduled meeting of 2009.