The Buffalo News Editorial Board – October 25, 2015
In the end, Erie County voters have only one serious choice for county executive. Democratic incumbent Mark C. Poloncarz falls short of being a slam dunk, but he has done more than enough to warrant re-election.
Also favoring Poloncarz are the divisive and misleading strategies of his Republican opponent. Assemblyman Raymond W. Walter has anchored his campaign in a proposal that would hurt Buffalo just as the city is starting to hum. What is more, his campaign is trailing more than a whiff of desperation based on the unsavory cheap shots he is taking at the incumbent.
Poloncarz has done well at the fundamentals of his job: He has controlled spending – sometimes with the assistance of the County Legislature – and worked hard to keep county residents safe. He responded effectively to the tragedies of child deaths related to inadequate performance of Child Protective Services, and with other county and state leaders, worked almost nonstop during last November’s killer snowstorms. Roads were cleared quickly, considering the depth of snow, and while there were deaths that might have been avoided – either through better coordination of efforts or better decisions by motorists – the toll could easily have been much higher.
Poloncarz scores lower by backing a policy that could hinder Buffalo’s efforts to take maximum advantage of its ongoing revival. In particular, his insistence upon a rule that requires businesses winning tax breaks from the Erie County Industrial Development Agency to submit to intrusive audits could genuinely hurt the city.
The rule requires companies benefiting from ECIDA incentives not only to prove that they pay women the same as men – that’s already a state law – but makes them prove it to outside auditors. The result almost certainly will be to incentivize those businesses to look elsewhere – the Amherst IDA, for example – where they encounter no such intrusiveness. Erie County will still benefit, of course, but Buffalo will be locked out. It’s a bad rule and an unnecessary one, given that state law already requires equal pay. It’s ham-fisted and accomplishes little but to hurt the city’s growth.
Another policy suggested to the ECIDA would mandate union card checks by companies seeking incentives. That mandate would slam the door on companies seeking to move here. Poloncarz should oppose it.
But while IDA policies could inadvertently hurt Buffalo’s forward march, Walter’s tax plan would knowingly subvert it.
His proposal to change the county’s sales tax distribution formula would purposely hurt the city just at the moment of its rebirth. What is more, the plan is a transparent attempt to win rural and suburban votes by pitting the county’s regions against one another. It’s not what Erie County needs in its leader.
That doesn’t mean that revising the sales tax distribution formula can never be done, or that it isn’t a worthy subject for discussion, but the timing of Walter’s gambit is in all ways inappropriate. Why work to undermine Buffalo’s progress at the very moment of its transformation?
Walter has also been leveling false accusations against Poloncarz – about a supposed public works scandal and improper donations – and doing so in a way that reflects poorly on his own judgment. He is not the man for this job.
Poloncarz has surprised many people with his hard work and commitment to guarding the public purse. He’s made a potentially expensive error in pushing for the equal pay rule, but overall he has been a solid performer in office. He deserves re-election