Per the Erie County Charter, a Citizens Salary Review Commission recently deliberated on the matter of pay raises for Erie County elected officials. The commission recommended a substantial 53% salary increase for Erie County Legislators. This proposal will soon be before the Legislature for a vote. I am not in any way for the proposed raises for elected officials.
Simply put, this should not be a full-time, sole income job, it should be public service.
Our founding fathers intended for legislators to be “citizen legislators” - individuals in the community who serve the public, rather than treating it as a career at the expense of taxpayers. As Erie County Legislators, we have the option to earn income from external sources, ensuring that we remain connected to the economic realities faced by our constituents.
The commission based their recommendation on population, budget size, and other factors. Comparing Erie to counties like Monroe, Niagara, and Albany, reasoning that because we represent more people and deal with a larger budget, we should receive larger pay. However, such a comparison fails to consider that these other legislatures meet at or after 6:00 pm on weekdays, while the Erie County Legislature meets at 12:00 pm on Thursdays. It is this ridiculous time of day we meet that bars the ability to earn other income or is a deterrent to others running for office. We should first consider changing this barrier before implementing a taxpayer-funded raise.
While it is true that the cost of living is increasing, our constituents do not have the luxury of raising their own pay. It is absurd that some of my colleagues across the aisle believe that your hard-earned tax dollars should serve to inflate their income. Our purpose is to represent the best interests of our constituents, not to serve ourselves.
Unfortunately, the preposterous spending does not end there. The County Executive recently proposed, and the majority caucus approved, “Erie Corps,” creating even more jobs on the county payroll. During committee, I asked exactly what these jobs were for, and what necessary work would be performed that is not done already. The administration could not provide any answers. Instead, they compared the programs to FDR’s New Deal designed to provide job opportunities in the Great Depression when unemployment reached record highs of 25%. Today, when unemployment is hovering around 5% and private industry struggles to find workers, the County Executive is adding patronage jobs with no rationale. Mark Poloncarz is no Franklin D. Roosevelt.
This reckless spending and growth of government needs to end. We are heading towards a fiscal cliff, and in the remaining 3.5 years of what Mark Poloncarz says will be his final term, he should be working with us to rein in spending. As it stands, he may very well be leaving future administrations a financial mess that they will be forced to clean up. As taxpayers, we should all be very troubled by this. I, for one, will not support the continued growth in government and spending of this administration.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact my office at Lindsay.Lorigo@erie.gov, or by phone at 716-858-8922.
