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CITYCIDE: GIAMBRA'S TAX TANTRUM ALMOST MAKES NIAGARA COUNTY LEGISLATORS LOOK GOOD

By David Staba

Writing the following sentence makes me worry my fingers might fall off, but here goes anyway: The Niagara County Legislature just might be doing the right thing. (OK, feeling a little cramping, but otherwise, the digits remain intact and in place.)


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Granted, there are a slew of rationalizations and a heaping serving of relativism involved, but last week's decision by the Administration Committee to recommend a 6 percent property tax increase seems reasonable, maybe even fair, when compared to the tantrum-throwing at the self-pity party going on to the south in Erie County.

That's where County Executive Joel Giambra continues holding his scorched-earth "red" budget proposal over the heads of residents, as well as county and state legislators. Giambra says he will close libraries, eliminate road patrols, close county parks outside Buffalo and have all puppies rounded up and strangled in front of the children who own them. Unless, of course, he's allowed to increase sales taxes yet another percentage point, to 9.25.

It's almost funny, considering the source. After taking office, Giambra haughtily decreed "No handout, no bailout" for Buffalo. This ignored his role in creating the city's fiscal cesspool while he served as its comptroller. Not to mention the uneven sales-tax split that put the county in such a comparatively strong financial position in the first place. It goes without saying that the county would keep all those extra pennies -- which add up to $125 million annually -- if he gets his way.

But if there's one thing Giambra has proven quite good at, it's ignoring facts that cast him in a bad light. So there he is, hand proudly extended for a bailout from his own constituents.

Attempting to band-aid the deficit by raising the most regressive of taxes while keeping the county payroll larded with cronies and flunkies, Buffalo's own Giambra has demonstrated once again where his political heart is -- Amherst and Orchard Park, with the occasional weekend in East Aurora.

Giambra owes his political career to the owners of McMansions in those suburbs. Before they adopted him, he was little more than a career paper-pusher who spent decades working for the same City Hall apparatus he now treats like a disobedient child.

After jumping to the Republican Party and toppling incumbent Dennis Gorski in 1999, Giambra quickly established his priorities. Gorski left him with a healthy budget surplus, which he immediately poured into the pockets of those suburbanites with a massive tax cut.

Nothing against tax cuts. They're certainly preferable to increases, but you need to make sure you can pay for them. Otherwise, you end up in a $130 million hole, which is where Giambra finds himself heading.

Giambra's gift to those who need it least came at a time when the stock market was booming and Erie County was relatively flush with cash. It also arrived before Sept. 11, 2001.

Between county reserves and tobacco-settlement money, Giambra whizzed away nearly $600 million over the past five years. Not that any of it is his fault, of course.

No, Giambra casts Medicaid as the lone villain, a fictitious view shared by Niagara County lawmakers. To hear them tell it, you'd think the money put into Medicaid by the counties vanishes into thin air, rather than providing health care for those who qualify in their own counties. In other words, the people they represent.

Without question, Medicaid costs are out of control, the system in need of reform. But that's true everywhere, not just Western New York. Yet, for some reason, nobody wails about it like the Erie County Executive.

Niagara County's economy is certainly no better than Erie's, yet the amount raised by a 6 percent property tax hike, if it goes through, would be dwarfed by the money produced by Giambra's extra penny. And his plan hurts the middle and lower classes far worse than his suburban base, since sales taxes, unlike their property-based cousins, bear no relation to ability to pay.

Cattaraugus County legislators also recently requested state approval to increase the sales-tax rate, but only by three-quarters of a penny to 9 percent. Suddenly, a leisurely drive to Pennsylvania, where the rate is but 6 percent, looks pretty tempting.

By raising the property tax rate in Niagara County, the Republicans who dominate the legislature give their challengers in November -- assuming the tattered Democratic Party can field a decent slate of candidates outside Niagara Falls -- a campaign stick with which to beat them about the head and shoulders.

They're already facing a challenge to maintain the super-majority they currently control, counting Republicrats and Conservative Bill Ross. Despite unfettered dominance of the chamber, the GOP caucus hasn't exactly revolutionized county government since taking over 11 months ago.

Promises to streamline operations and privatize money losers like Mount View nursing home and the county's solid-waste district remain unfulfilled. The ham-handed attempt by several Republicans to grab an undeserved share of Niagara Falls' casino revenue was so laughable, even its proponents sounded embarrassed while halfheartedly making what passed for their case.

But as mentioned above, the GOP legislators deserve some credit for facing the music on this one. Apparently incapable of realizing the sort of efficiency and savings they promised voters barely a year ago, at least they're willing to make a hard choice by raising property taxes instead of standing behind Giambra in the handout line.


The tax-increase discussion brings us Citycide's Disgusting Quote of the Week, courtesy of Erie County Legislator Jeanne Z. Chase, as reported in the Buffalo News:

"I liken it to the insurgents in Iraq who are bombing their own buildings and people because they don't like us. We don't like Albany's unfunded mandates, but we'll take it out on constituents with higher property taxes, and that's not acceptable."

Actually, Jeanne, what's not acceptable is a politician comparing making a choice that might cost her a few votes to a situation where people are being killed on a daily basis.

Doubling the property-tax rate in Erie County would cost the owner of a $100,000 home an extra $400 a year. That's not a life-or-death decision, that's a basic-cable-or-satellite-dish decision.

Hopefully, the voters in Chase's district -- particularly those with family members serving in the military, will remember that human lives mean no more to her than someone's tax bill when re-election time rolls around.


David Staba is the sports editor of the Niagara Falls Reporter. He welcomes e-mail at dstaba13@aol.com.

Niagara Falls Reporter www.niagarafallsreporter.com Nov. 30 2004