By Staff Reporter
BUFFALO — Ten months after the Erie County Legislature stripped out the money to design a new consolidated jail, the county’s proposed 2027 budget lays out what it will cost to keep the two old ones running instead: $57 million over the next six years.
County Executive Mark Poloncarz’s 2027 budget message puts $7 million in next year’s capital budget for repairs at the downtown Holding Center and the Correctional Facility in Alden. It calls that “this first installment of $57 million planned through 2032,” for “phased renovations and building system upgrades that maintain the viability of both facilities,” plus $4.8 million for new security cameras.
That comes on top of $5.5 million the county already put into its 2026 borrowing for the most urgent work and for a design contract with a corrections specialist to plan longer-term improvements.
How the county got here
Last year Mr. Poloncarz proposed $20 million to begin design and engineering on a single, consolidated jail in Alden that would replace the Holding Center. Spectrum News reported the full project at $430 million. In adopting the 2026 budget in December, the Legislature removed that $20 million.
“Residents made it clear that a $20 million jail study was not the direction they wanted for our community, and I’m proud that we removed that funding,” Legislature Chair Tim Meyers said at the time. Members of the Legislature told Spectrum that property taxes likely would have gone up had they approved it.
Sheriff John Garcia, whose office runs both jails, warned that the decision had a price. “This regrettable decision comes with a cost, as substantial investment in our two Jail Management Division facilities will be required in the coming decades,” he said in a statement. He put the urgent work identified last year at an estimated $54 million and said the duplication of services between the two facilities “costs Erie County taxpayers more than $15 million each year.”
“As I have said all along, doing nothing is not an option,” Mr. Garcia said.
What the budget documents show
In his message to legislators, Mr. Poloncarz did not reopen the fight but did not let it go, either. “In adopting the 2026 Budget, your Honorable Body removed the $20 million design and engineering authorization for a consolidated facility in Alden, setting that plan aside,” he wrote. “The needs of our existing facilities remain, however, and they cannot be deferred indefinitely.”
The county’s 2027 capital projects request book shows the Department of Public Works asked for more than the budget provides. It requested $10 million a year for six years, $60 million in all, for renovations at both jails, entirely on the county’s dime. Its statement of need says a feasibility study “identified many issues within the 2 buildings” and that “numerous deficiencies need to be addressed to maintain operations and remedy life safety concerns.” Some building systems, it says, “are beyond their useful life.”
As of the June request, design had not begun. The money is meant to pay for projects that the jail design contract ranks as priorities.
The Sheriff’s Office also asked for $5.18 million to replace the Alden facility’s camera system and $1.12 million for a new camera management system at the Holding Center. The budget includes $4.8 million for security camera upgrades.
The jail program is part of a capital budget that funds less than half of what departments asked for. Mr. Poloncarz wrote that the $90.9 million in county-share capital spending is “less than half of the $188.1 million requested by departments,” and that a new highway maintenance facility and an expanded Emergency Operations Center went unfunded. He also listed “rising debt service as we address deferred maintenance at the Holding Center and Correctional Facilities” among the pressures behind worst-case budget gaps his financial plan projects at $65.6 million to $73.8 million a year from 2028 to 2030.
The questions now
The Legislature will review the budget this fall, with a final vote expected in early December, WGRZ reported. The Buffalo News has also reported on the repair plan.
Several questions are open. What exactly will the first $7 million fix, and in which building? Will the corrections specialist’s plan put a firm price on keeping both jails open for 20 or 30 years, so taxpayers can compare it with the cost of one new building? And does the sheriff’s estimate of more than $15 million a year in duplicated operating costs still hold?
The answers will shape whether the 2025 vote saved taxpayers money or only moved the bill into the repair budget.
The Buffalo Chronicle is asking the Sheriff’s Office, the county executive’s office and Legislature leaders for the list of projects in the first phase and the latest estimate of operating both facilities.
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