Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz stood before residents at Lackawanna City Hall on Monday night to walk through the county’s proposed 2027 budget, telling the crowd that the roughly $2.4 billion spending plan leaves local officials with far less flexibility than most people assume. Poloncarz said 90% of that total is mandated by federal and state requirements, meaning the county has little room to maneuver on priorities such as roads, parks, and libraries.
The town hall was meant to demystify where county dollars actually go, according to News 4 Buffalo, which reported that Poloncarz wanted to give citizens a better idea of what the budget entails and how funds are distributed. He explained that a significant portion of the county’s sales tax collections get shared with cities like Lackawanna and Buffalo, along with school districts, towns, and villages — leaving a shrinking slice for the county’s own discretionary priorities.
Mandated Costs Squeeze Local Priorities
Poloncarz put it plainly for the Lackawanna crowd: there’s only a certain amount the county can work with on the things people actually notice day to day, like road repaving, park upkeep, and library funding. That message tracks with separate reporting that put the full proposal at $2.408 billion, a 5.5% jump over last year’s budget driven by $125 million in additional spending, according to BTPM NPR. That same reporting pegged the proposed property-tax levy increase at 3.6%, or $12.7 million, though a separate search-result snippet attributed to legislative critics put the figure at $12.6 million — a discrepancy that has not been resolved.
Poloncarz also used the forum to take aim at what he called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the federal law he referred to as the “big ugly bill.” He argued the legislation handed tax cuts to billionaires without actually cutting the underlying programs, instead shifting those costs down to state and local governments. The same federal law is tied to a 25% reduction in administrative reimbursement for SNAP that took effect October 1, per the earlier BTPM report.
A Warning About 2028
The county executive didn’t mince words about what’s coming. If this feels like a tight budget, Poloncarz warned, residents should brace for an even tighter one in 2028, as the shifted federal costs work their way fully into the county’s ledger. The Erie County Legislature is expected to vote on the current 2027 proposal in early December, following a series of budget hearings, per the same BTPM account.
Beyond the big-picture numbers, Poloncarz used part of the Lackawanna meeting to highlight what the county has already delivered locally. He pointed to street repairs in the city — including on roads the county doesn’t even own — plus a sizable investment in Lackawanna’s sewage treatment plant, saying those projects were funded with federal resources so that ratepayers didn’t have to foot the bill themselves.
Next Stop: Amherst
The Lackawanna session won’t be the last chance for residents to hear directly from the county executive. Poloncarz said another town hall on the proposed budget is planned for the Amherst Senior Center, continuing a tour meant to make the county’s spending priorities — and its constraints — clearer to taxpayers across Erie County before lawmakers cast their final vote.
