No easy fix

While county leaders are just now figuring out how bad the problem is, one thing has been clear from the start: Erie County's budget is a mess.

This year there is a $105.6 million budget shortfall, a figure that County Executive Joel Giambra said could skyrocket to $183 million by 2009 if he and the county legislature cannot agree on a mix of cost cutting or revenue increasing measures.

The executive and the legislature battled continuously over tax cuts and even how bad the budget problem was, but the odds increased that the two will reach a budgetary compromise when the state-ordered Fiscal Stability Board convened for the first time in August.

The board consists of seven members from various government and business backgrounds, with UB's Janet Penksa tabbed as a member. Penksa is currently an associate vice president for university services and the director of government affairs. She was nominated because of her extensive background in managing government budgets, particularly her five-year tenure as fiscal secretary to the Ways and Means Committee of the New York State Assembly.

Penksa said the board is different from the City of Buffalo's control board, enacted in 2003.

"Unlike the city's board, it's an advisory board, but a board with teeth," she said.

The difference is that Giambra, County Comptroller James Hartman and the county legislature still have control over most county budget decisions, whereas Buffalo's control board actually decides on city budget decisions.

"The board will advise the executive on their decisions and ensure that the county has to produce a balanced four-year budget plan and maintain balance," Penksa said.

There is little room for error, however, as should Giambra's administration fail to produce budgetary balance, the advisory board will become a control board, essentially removing the executive from budgetary decision, according to Penksa.

With the county so deep in deficit, cost cutting measures are appropriately daunting. The Buffalo-Niagara Partnership, a coalition of local businesspeople, produced a report detailing many possibilities for making up that gap, particularly advising that Erie County end several high profile services, including local police services, snowplowing, and elderly care.

The suggestions save money, but none of them are painless.

"Discontinue all subsidies to ECMC (Erie County Medical Center); close external county-run health centers," reads one plan, suggesting it either merge with Kaleida or the Catholic Health System or operate as an independent hospital without taxpayer subsidies.

As shocking as the plan sounds, it is not far from some kind of fruition. Giambra has already suggested plans that would deeply reduce ECMC funding.

The Buffalo-Niagara Partnership report also suggested, among other things, completely eliminating funding for Erie Community College, a school many UB students started at. With classes already in session and this year's budget long-passed, ECC escaped budget slashing this year, but ECC officials are completely unsure what the future holds for them and their students.

"As of now, ECC hasn't been affected, nothing has changed," said Katharine Felshchow, ECC's public information officer. "But for next year, no one knows. We can't speculate."

Right now, ECC relies on funding from three sources: roughly one-third comes from the state, one-third from tuition and one-third from county subsidies. Most community colleges subscribe to this division.

"There was a paradigm of cost sharing," said Penksa. "I would imagine, if you look at the partnership report, it advises the county to get out of the college business. In some fashion, if you're really looking to cut budget, that is a place to look."

While UB is not as directly affected as ECC, Penksa said UB students would experience both a decreased quality of life and increased costs due to tax increases, even if they do not own property in the county.

"Property taxes will impact the cost of housing stocks," she said. "If you're a renter, you're going to see a reflection in your rent."

All UB students are already affected by increased sales tax, and Penksa said reduced parks and recreation funding could affect UB students.

Since UB's governmental funding comes primarily from the state, it is not in the same tenuous situation as ECC, but a bankrupt community surrounding UB could lead to problems attracting both students and faculty.

"There was a point where CNN and other newspapers were reporting that the county couldn't even afford toilet paper, and people read that and it affects their decisions," said Penksa. "People want to move to thriving communities."

With the mounting deficit and so much doubt, it is easy for cynicism to permeate public opinion. Recent polls in the Buffalo News call for Giambra to be pulled from office, and editorials in the News, The Spectrum, and other publications have disparaged the crisis.

However, Penksa said there is cause for hope.

"The county issue is not all negative," she said. "With the advisory board, we're kind of rounding the bend into a more positive environment."