The Buffalo Chronicle
Erie County Legislature
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The Bills stadium surcharge is beating its forecast, and Erie County should publish where every dollar goes
The 6% surcharge at the new Highmark Stadium raised $2.88 million in two months, most of the $4 million the 2022 deal expected for a full year. Erie County should post every…
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Erie County’s Legislature should write purchasing limits into law before it votes on the 2027 budget
A comptroller’s audit found Erie County signed a helicopter contract before the money was appropriated and changed it without a documented vote. The Legislature should set dollar limits and approval rules for…
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Erie County is right to open a 24/7 shelter. It should show the public the bill.
Erie County is right to open a 200-bed winter shelter on South Park Avenue. But it bid a 24/7 program with local money covering warm nights, and it should publish that cost…
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Erie County’s helicopter deal shows how its purchasing office slipped past its own guardrails
An April audit says Erie County’s purchasing office let one helicopter become two without legislative review, paid a deposit to the wrong vendor and could not document much of its own work.…
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Erie County’s new South Park shelter will stay open on warm nights, too, and local taxpayers will cover those nights
Erie County’s lease on the former Buffalo Creek Academy began Nov. 1. County documents show the shelter will run 24/7 all winter, with local funds paying for nights the state won’t reimburse,…
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Erie County picks a South Park school for a permanent Code Blue shelter and tells City Hall it doesn’t need permission
Erie County wants to lease the former Buffalo Creek Academy on South Park Avenue as a permanent emergency shelter, says it is immune from city zoning, and faces objections from Majority Leader…
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Albany should not hand Erie County the bill for SNAP’s error-rate penalty
Washington is shifting SNAP costs to the states, and New York passes its share to counties. Albany should commit now to absorbing any SNAP benefit penalty and renew Erie County’s sales tax…
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Erie County’s 2027 budget cuts the tax rate. Its own four-year plan warns of $70 million gaps
Mark Poloncarz’s 2027 budget lowers Erie County’s tax rate again, but the county’s own four-year plan projects gaps near $70 million a year as federal SNAP costs shift to counties and the…
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Erie County Republicans try again to cap the gas tax at $2. Poloncarz, who backed a cap in 2022, calls it posturing
With Buffalo gas at $4.37 a gallon, Erie County Legislature Republicans want the county’s sales tax capped at $2 a gallon starting Dec. 1. Mark Poloncarz says the last cap enriched retailers,…
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Erie County’s budget holds Buffalo’s stages to last year’s dollars and leaves out a dozen groups its own reviewers backed
Poloncarz’s 2027 budget recommends $8.5 million for 112 arts groups, $113,862 less than this year. The BPO, Shea’s and most theaters are held flat, and 12 groups the county’s own planning department…
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Erie County’s plan to widen its senior property-tax break has sat in committee since summer
A bill to raise Erie County’s senior exemption income limit from $37,399 to $50,000, at a cost of about $7 million, was back on the Finance and Management Committee’s agenda Oct. 15,…
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Erie County drivers deserve license plate camera rules written by lawmakers, not by Flock
Cheektowaga’s Flock misuse case shows how little stands between drivers’ movements and anyone with a login. Town boards, the Erie County Legislature and Albany should write license plate camera rules into law.
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Erie County lawmakers killed a new jail. The plan to keep the two old ones running now costs $57 million
Poloncarz’s 2027 budget puts $7 million toward repairs at the Holding Center and the Alden jail, the first piece of a $57 million plan through 2032, after legislators scrapped a consolidated jail.…
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Erie County still chasing $617,700 from Albany for jail stays left over from the prison strike
Erie County lawmakers voted unanimously to press the state for $617,700 the Sheriff’s Office spent holding parole violators during the prison staffing crisis. The state law at issue doesn’t mention parole violators,…
