LEGISLATOR SMITH INTRODUCES RESOLUTION SEEKING MID-YEAR BUDGET HEARINGS

Seventh District Erie County Legislator Demone A. Smith (D-Buffalo) has introduced a law requiring the Erie County Legislature hold mid-year budget hearings.

Legislator Smith introduced the resolution, seeking to determine on a department-by-department basis the status of each department and its 2006 budget and cosponsored by 10 other legislators, during the February 9 Finance, Management and Budget Committee meeting, a committee that he chairs.

“We plan to hold these hearings in June with the full participation and cooperation from the County Executive, Director of Budget, Management and Finance and the Comptroller,” Legislator Smith said. “As elected officials who have to make critical decisions on spending and other financial matters, we need all available information and status reports submitted to the County Legislature so we can openly discuss where the budget stands and how to make sure it stays on the proper track without developing a deficit, or to have a deficit properly declared if one exists.”

The proposed legislation’s cosponsors include Legislature Chairperson Lynn M. Marinelli, Majority Leader Maria R. Whyte and Legislators Cynthia E. Locklear, Timothy M. Kennedy, Kathy Konst, Thomas A. Loughran, Daniel M. Kozub and Robert B. Reynolds Jr.

“The County Legislature cannot depend on the timeliness of the Budget Monitoring Reports it receives from the administration on what is supposed to be monthly basis, as past experience shows, and the accuracy of these reports do not always show the state of the County’s finances when the Legislature receives them,” Chairperson Marinelli said. “The inherent flaws of the current budget monitoring reports are identified in the initiative matrix attached to Erie County’s four-year plan.”

The County Legislature is expected to act on the mid-year budget hearing legislation at its Tuesday, February 14, session.

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