July 28, 2011
By Janice Habuda
County Executive Chris Collins on Thursday outlined his administration’s plan to reduce the county’s more than $500 million debt by almost $200 million by 2015.
Under his plan, that figure would be reduced by $143 million — or 25 percent — by 2012. Reductions would continue through his second term of office, said Collins, a Republican who is seeking re-election, reaching $196 million, for a total reduction of 35 percent, by the start of 2015.
“Respecting future generations is a core principal that guides my administration, especially as it pertains to budgetary matters,” Collins said.
“We should not be leaving our children and grandchildren with unnecessary debt and a bag of IOUs because we are unwilling to make tough decisions and live within our means.”
Collins said the county’s debt stood at $562 million in 2007 — before he took office. The county executive’s debt-reduction plan is part of his four-year financial plan that was recently submitted to the Erie County Fiscal Stability Authority.
County Comptroller Mark C. Poloncarz, the Democratic candidate for county executive, described the Collins plan as “yet another example of the Collins administration’s reliance on ‘smoke and mirrors’ to artificially inflate numbers in an attempt to mislead the public.”
“The fact of the matter is that the vast majority of his supposed $200 million in debt reduction by 2015 is completely made up,” he said.
Poloncarz said the Collins administration overstated the numbers by including more than $37 million in debt retired in 2007; the county’s debt was $525 million at the start of his administration.
Collins said more than $100 million in debt related to Erie County Medical Center was removed in a 2009 agreement he negotiated “that officially took Erie County out of the hospital business.”
Poloncarz countered that the county still is legally obligated to guarantee that debt and would be forced to pay it if ECMC defaulted.
“While Collins continually boasts about taking ‘Erie County out of the hospital business,’ county taxpayers are still on the hook for more than $16 million a year as part of the settlement,” the comptroller said.
A second facet of the Collins debt-reduction plan uses fund-balance dollars — federal stimulus money and operating surpluses — to pay for selected capital projects with cash.
“That includes the new building for Erie Community College and the new nursing home for Erie County Medical Center,” Collins said.
Erie County’s share of the nursing home project is $11.5 million; $7.5 million would go to the college project.
Under a third facet of the plan, routine road-maintenance projects are funded in the county’s operating budget.
“We ended the inappropriate capital borrowing for routine road maintenance that was used by the prior administration,” Collins said.
Poloncarz said: “The reality is Chris Collins didn’t reduce debt by a single dollar in his first three years in office but actually increased it by more than $20 million.”
“Only this year, has the county’s debt been reduced,” he added. “And while Collins claims that by the start of 2012 he will have reduced the county’s debt by $143 million, when you dig a little deeper, that $143 million is really only about $10 million.”