Lack of agreement in Legislature keeps Erie County repairs in limbo
By Matthew Spina
Updated: 05/09/08 3:10 PM
Erie County’s effort to fix its roads and bridges and shore up its landmarks this year continues to be held hostage to legislative and bureaucratic stalemate.
The Legislature on Thursday couldn’t agree on the projects that merit long-term debt, essentially forcing County Executive Chris Collins to create a new list of repairs that at least 10 legislators support.
Meanwhile, Collins and the state-appointed control board are squabbling over who will finance those repairs. The control board wants to borrow the millions of dollars because it can borrow cheaply. But Collins and other elected leaders don’t want the control board existing for decades just to repay debt.
There is no end in sight to their dispute, which boiled over in an angry exchange between Collins and the control board a week ago, when Chairman Anthony
J. Baynes and Vice Chairman Robert Glaser called Collins a politician, and he said he wants their agency dismantled someday.
Two developments Thursday illustrate the government’s latest dysfunction, and why Wehrle Drive’s reconstruction will wait at least a little while longer, as will the rebuilding of washed-out Zoar Valley Road and the replacement of the roof of the county jail that fugitive Ralph “Bucky” Phillips pried through with a can opener:
• Four control board members, a majority of the Erie County Fiscal Stability Authority, said they are not inclined to approve Collins’ first four-year financial plan as written. If the control board rejects the document, it remains a so-called hard control board that can stop elected officials from borrowing on their own, and it will retain the upper hand in its who-borrows dispute with Collins, Comptroller Mark C. Poloncarz and legislators.
• Further, the Legislature could not muster the two-thirds majority that would let the county take on more debt. Nine, not 10, of the 15 legislators were willing to borrow money for the projects on the table. Since the package failed, the county executive must propose a new list for a new round of review.
Ever since Collins ditched the expansion of Erie Community College’s City Campus proposed by former County Executive Joel A. Giambra, lawmakers from Buffalo have wanted to see more projects for Buffalo in this year’s plan.
They proposed borrowing $2 million for a new urban arts center; $500,000 for city streets; $5 million to raze vacant, neglected structures, an acute problem in the city; and $5 million for Buffalo’s Olmsted Parks, where the city usually pays for major repairs.
The lawmakers were reminded that the county cannot borrow for assets it does not own, or it must create special agreements, like it does to borrow for the Buffalo Zoo. Also, several of the current projects benefit Buffalo, such as the $1 million proposed for a new children’s zoo and the ongoing improvements at the Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens.
“I want my concerns addressed,” Buffalo Democrat Betty Jean Grant insisted as she and another Buffalo Democrat, Maria R. Whyte, withheld their support for the list.
Three suburban Democrats, arguing the government should limit its borrowing, also withheld support. They were: Michele Iannello of Kenmore, Thomas A. Loughran of Amherst and Robert B. Reynolds of Hamburg.
Another Buffalo Democrat, Barbara Miller-Williams, was not at the meeting, but she and Grant often vote similarly.
Other lawmakers were frustrated.
“People want to see all the bickering stop. They want to see us pass a capital budget,” said Legislator Michael H. Ranzenhofer, R-Amherst. But even after a recess designed to press Reynolds to change his vote, there was little they could do.
Earlier in the day, the Fiscal Stability Authority’s Finance Committee pounded Collins’ budget staff with questions about the four-year plan they had devised. In it, they attempt to show the government can balance its budgets through 2011. The committee, however, questioned virtually every assumption, about property taxes, sales taxes, Six Sigma savings and whether Collins should count on casino revenues when the local-government share was originally destined for City Hall.
“I’m somewhat disappointed because it’s somewhat superficial and looks like it was pulled together rather quickly,” committee Chairman Joseph Goodell told Budget Director Beth A. Kornbrekke and her staff after the first public review of their forecast.
“At this point, I’m not comfortable accepting the four-year plan,” Goodell said.
Erie County has roads in sore shape.
The county’s 2007 loan for major repairs never occurred, largely because of the same dispute over who should borrow the money. County officials used cash on hand to pay for select projects.
In total, the government wants to borrow about $87 million, $35 million for the 2007 list of repairs and $52 million for this year.
The zoo got caught in last year’s dispute. Ditto for this year.
“I am hoping that if the county executive sends over a new capital budget, it includes the zoo, and the Legislature will vote to approve it,” said zoo President Donna Fernandes.
