No tax increase for Erie County. That’s what County Executive Christina Vogel promised on Wednesday as she unveiled her proposed 2027 budget.

This proposed budget for the 2027 fiscal year is about $565 million. That’s a 2.9% increase from the 2026 budget. 

During the presentation of her proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year, County Executive Christina Vogel highlighted the areas that she wants to focus on. And one of her key priorities is strengthening and expanding emergency medical services.

“This is just a continuation of what we’ve been doing all along. To support them financially throughout, trying to make each of the pieces better because it’s such a critical – obviously, if you call 911, you want someone to be there and you want them to be there in a timely manner with experts there to take care of you,” she said.

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Though there are no layoffs in the proposed budget, nine long-term unfilled positions will be eliminated to reduce overhead. Current employees will also get a raise of either $1.19 an hour or four percent, whichever is higher.

Despite the 2.9% increase from last year’s budget, Erie County Executive made a concerted effort to avoid raising taxes. The county executive also said she’s aiming to streamline county government.

“There’s a huge problem with affordability and we’ve seen already. All the school districts have raised taxes; we know that there’s a tax increase coming from the city and we have the ability to not do a tax increase and so we thought it was appropriate that this- this is why we have an unrestricted fund balance.”

Vogel said the county can avoid a tax increase by utilizing the county’s unrestricted fund balance.

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“I like the part of instead of raising taxes, use the $4.5 million. I think she said of fund balance. You know, It’s a rainy-day thing and we’re in a rainy day,” said Erie County Council Chairman Terry Scutella.

Vogel also said her administration was able to keep expenses below budget, despite inflation, which she highlights as an example of the county’s fiscal responsibility.

Next steps are for Vogel to work with county council to finalize a budget. That budget is due December 31.

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