Giambra unveils Erie County budget

Well it appears to be a step in the right direction. Giambra plans to cut 861 county employees. We will still have 4,306.. Population has fallen at a faster rate than the amount of employees so there has to be an equalization at some point soon. But that will be very slow coming as I have some serious doubts these job cuts will happen once the legislature gets ahold of this..

Giambra unveils budget – Business First of Buffalo:
Promising no property tax increase for 2007 and all the way through 2010, Erie County Executive Joel Giambra unveiled his spending package for next year and, at the same time, offered a revised financial plan to the Erie County Fiscal Stability Authority.

The $1.4 billion proposed budget, which will now be scrutinized by the fiscal stability authority — the county’s fiscal watchdogs — and the Erie County Legislature, calls for the tax rate to drop from $4.96 per $1,000 assessed valuation this year to $4.84 per $1,000 in 2007. In 1999, the year before Giambra took office, the tax rate was $6.90 per $1,000 assessed valuation.

“There’s no gimmericky in this budget,” Giambra said during a Wednesday morning press conference. “It’s real.”

Giambra said he hopes the budget is viewed as the next step in the county’s fiscal stability and another sign of progress following last year’s budget crisis that resulted in deep cuts of personnel and services.

“It continues our commitment to keeping Erie County real property taxes as low as possible,” Giambra said.

By comparison, the Monroe County property tax rate is $7.91 per $1,000 of assessed valuation and Niagara County has a $9.16 per $1,000 assessed valuation price tag.

Still, Giambra said the county needs the legislature to re-affirm their support of keeping the sales tax rate at 8.75 percent, up from the 8.25 percent that was in place until earlier this year.

The sales tax revenues are needed to help the county pay for approximately $99 million of non-mandated services.

“Without the sales tax, we’d be left with just $20 million for these non-mandated services,” Giambra said.

Other highlights from Giambra’s budget include bringing the county employment level down more than 16.6 percent to 4,306 workers from 5,167 in 2004.