The Erie County Shared Services Panel (“the Panel”) has released the proposed 2020 Erie County Shared Services Plan, developed with input from municipalities and school districts to identify ways to share services and cut costs to taxpayers through 2022. The SFY2018 NYS Budget included a new Shared Services Initiative designed to generate property tax savings by facilitating operational collaboration between local governments and establishing Shared Services Panels in every county statewide.  That Initiative was extended for three additional years to include the annual development of a 2020, 2021, and 2022 Shared Services Plan. In an encouraging development, several school districts joined the panel in forming the Plan and in collaboration with Erie County identified tens of millions of dollars in savings that can be realistically achieved in 2020 and beyond.

“Sharing services creates efficiencies, reduces tax burdens, and leads to better governance. These are efforts that all municipalities and school districts should be participating in for the betterment of their communities and the county as a whole,” said Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz. “On behalf of all county residents I thank the Panel for the work they did to identify these savings. There will be three public hearings on this Plan and then a vote to approve it, so I hope residents will come out to learn more about it, what went into its formation, and how it can save costs for their community.”

In addition to facilitating the development of the 2020 Plan, Erie County specifically encouraged the addition of local school districts as active participants in the panel and also urged new and existing Panel members to consider joining Erie County’s Labor Health Management Fund and Utilities Aggregation as part of the Plan’s development. The Plan estimates that participating municipalities and school districts could save over $3.9 million in 2020, over $12.8 million in 2021, and over $16.7 million in 2022. These would be entirely new savings, achieved in addition to any savings accrued by prior efforts in past years.

The Plan has been clocked in at the Erie County Legislature and public hearings on it will be scheduled. After being approved the plan will be submitted to NYS by December 31.

For more information:

On the Shared Services Panel and the 2020 Plan, visit http://www2.erie.gov/sharedservices/ 

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