7/16/12: Courtesy of WKBW. Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz has been on the job for more than six months. He said there is a $6.6 million dollar surplus in the budget but he has his doubts about what the future will hold. “We have a balanced budget for the first five months but if things continue we have some tough times going forward. I’m very worried of the financial status of the county,” Poloncarz said. Poloncarz said there are numerous reasons for concern, starting with the counties financial obligation to ECMC for uninsured patients. In the past, the fix rate was about $16 million dollars. The cost could balloon to more than $50 million dollars this year, with similar rates over the next four years. “We’re finding ways to address this problem without negatively impacting our budget. But as stated we expect these numbers to continue, at least until 2016,” Poloncarz said.

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