A residency requirement is being proposed for employees of Erie County. If approved, new workers would be required to live in the county.Legislator Joseph Lorigo, who introduced the bill, says the county's 3,500 current employees would be grandfathered in.
Lorigo, a West Seneca Conservative, says the residency requirement would benefit the county by increasing property and sales tax revenue. He says employees who live where they work would have a vested interest in providing better services to the public.
"The government is a service business and when you have people who live and work in the same community, I think they have a vested interest in providing better product and service to the people that they serve," Lorigo says.
No one spoke against the legislation during a public hearing on the proposal Wednesday. Lorigo says eight other counties in Western New York have a similar residency requirement.