Erie County Legislature Majority Leader Joseph Lorigo tells WBFO that lawmakers will be investigating the possibility of a tax cut for the coming fiscal year. Lorigo's comments follow the release of Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz' 2015 spending proposal.
The county executive's budget plan maintains property taxes at their current rate and increases spending by $40-million. Legislature Majority Leader Joseph Lorigo says he is "happy" to see there's no tax increase, but adds "it's not enough to hold the line."
Lorigo notes, "If we have additional revenue and we can do an additional 40-million-dollars worth of spending, there has to be somewhere in that budget where we can cut and hopefully reduce taxes."
Lorigo adds that he will know more once he's able to review the county executive's proposal in detail, but for now, he is happy with the additional $2-million pegged for county road improvements over last year's spending and will be looking closely at an increase in library money and funding for cultural groups.