Statement of Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz on the passage of the 2015 County Budget, December 2, 2014:
“Today is the culmination of a process that started in late summer. I want to thank the Legislature and my Budget Office staff for the passage of an on-time, non-acrimonious Budget that in the end, includes a small tax decrease for the residents of our community. During the past few weeks I worked with legislators on both sides of the aisle to come up with a workable budget that protected needed services yet did not place a burden on our local residents. Even today our Budget office prepared a set of amendments to be used by legislators to reduce the overall budget by $1.7 million, as compared to the eventual $2.1 million cut.
I specifically want to thank Chairman John Mills, who I spoke with many times in the past few weeks and days, for shepherding through a budget that approved 99.95% of my recommended proposal, and which included very minor changes. I am very pleased the budget not only protected our important cultural institutions, but also included a very small increase for some of the institutions. While I am disappointed in the cuts to public safety and the libraries, in the end I am pleased the changes were in fact very small and will not impact the People’s Mandates. The people of our community expect their representatives to work together in a spirit of cooperation for the good of the public, and today’s result shows that we can work together for the betterment of all.”
