Senator Dale M. Volker Passes Erie County Control Board Legislation
Senator Dale M. Volker (R-C-I, Depew) today passed legislation (S.5905) that would create the Erie County Fiscal Stability Authority (Erie County Control Board), in order to stabilize Erie County’s dire financial situation and restore taxpayer confidence.
"Erie County taxpayers have been deceived for too long as to the severity of their county’s budget deficits and this legislation will prevent this from happening in the future," said Senator Dale M. Volker. "Fiscal gimmicks, political posturing, and fiscal mismanagement created this financial mess and the time has come to have an outside entity oversee Erie County’s finances. It is up to the County Executive and the County Legislature as to whether they want to have a "Lite" or "Hard" control board monitoring, administrating, or implementing their budgets in order to stabilize county finances and continue those county services that the residents of Erie County depend on in their daily lives."
Under Senator Volker’s legislation the Erie County Fiscal Stability Authority will:
FINANCIAL OVERSIGHT AND CONTROL POWERS
Start with a "Lite" control period that will be responsible for the county’s financial plan review and approval
Will become "Hard" (i.e., control board with wage freeze, contract approval and other fiscal powers) if financial planning goals are not met
"Hard" control board would be implemented if Erie County (1) Fails to adopt an on-time balanced budget and financial plan within spending cap limits; (2) Fails to pay debt service; Incurs an operating deficit of more than 1 percent; Losses access to market for borrowing; or Violates the provisions of the Fiscal Stability Act.
COMPOSITION OF BOARD
Total: 7 members
Four directly appointed by the Governor (At least one must be an Erie County Resident)
One appointed by the State Senate (Must be an Erie County Resident)
One appointed by the State Assembly (Must be an Erie County Resident)
One appointed by the State Comptroller (Must be an Erie County Resident)
EFFICIENCY INCENTIVE AID
A $50 million "Efficiency Incentive Grant Program" is included ($10 million per year over five years)
These funds are not exclusively for Erie County, but may also include the City of Buffalo
No funds to be released unless cost savings are real, documented and confirmed
-20-