By Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz
It is past time for Erie County’s incredibly important sales tax continuation vote to be passed by the Erie County Legislature. Despite what the four members of the Legislature’s Minority Caucus each wrote last month in their guest columns published in The Bee, the passage of this local law is crucial because sales tax is the county’s number one revenue source.
By amending the County Charter to require a majority vote of legislators to continue our sales tax as opposed to the current language requiring a super-majority, we can avoid facing a financial crisis that would bring back a horrific fiscal situation and cause headaches that would far exceed what we experienced following the infamous 2005 “red-green financial crisis.”
What Legislators Greene, Todaro, Lorigo and Mills wrote in last month’s newspaper shows either that they did not read the law in its entirety or that they are outright lying and misleading you as their constituents. Nothing in the proposed law would negate a super-majority vote to increase the sales tax. Erie County Comptroller Kevin Hardwick stated it best when he said eliminating the 1.75 percent portion of the sales tax would be incredibly destructive and cause us all to face “Armageddon” should the sales tax vote ever fail.
An editorial published last month in The Buffalo News supports the idea of the County Legislature passing the law and allowing it to go before the voters. The newspaper’s editorial board accurately stated that the passage of the local law will ensure “the county’s financial health will be protected from unwarranted maneuvering that, in the wrong hands, could produce a crisis.”
As we have seen recently in our nation’s capital, it only takes the actions of a few elected officials to cause the wheels of any level of government to come to a sudden halt for no real purpose other than they want to receive attention for their efforts and amplify their hatred of government. We’ve seen and heard enough nonsense in Washington D.C. from representatives like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz. We don’t need that type of hysterical action locally.
Continuation of the sales tax at the current level is needed to keep county government functioning. No matter what the Minority Caucus members proclaim in press releases and guest newspaper columns or say on local radio programs, all four of them know that Erie County’s fiscal health will be protected and preserved by renewing the local sales tax. If passed, you the voters will ultimately decide this important issue when you head to the polls this fall.