What started as a rolling of the eyes “here we go again” has deteriorated into a brooding mix of disappointment and even anger for many taxpayers following the efforts of Erie County to balance the books these days.
One question looms largest, summed up best when screamed by Cuba Gooding’s character in the sport agent movie Jerry Maguire:
“SHOW ME THE MONEY!”
In the movie Gooding’s character Rod Tidwell was wondering about a new pro football contract.
For local taxpayers, the bewilderment comes from ten million dollars a year set aside by the state’s new gaming operations for local use and millions more sent to state coffers that the Governor promised would be used for property tax reform.
Some of the local money is restricted by law and must be set aside for infrastructure improvements.
So far not one project, nary a dime, has improved local roads and sewers and the like.
In fairness, that’s because a lawsuit over who controls those funds has held things up and even with a Judge’s decision opening the door for some townships to apply for those dollars a threatened appeal could land the whole thing in the freezer again.
The rest of the local funds are an unrestricted pot of gold pledged to regional assets like the Zoo and libraries and a proposed expansion of the runway at the airport, but again taxpayers have seen little so far in tangible results.
As for the state’s efforts to use the hundreds of millions of dollars sent to Harrisburg from gaming operations earmarked by Governor Rendell for substantial property tax reform, well, don’t get me started.
Suffice to say; it hasn’t happened.
Taxpayers with a sense of irony note that not only does the County budget call for a 25 dollar property tax increase, but also one of the key fights has been over closing a library branch, the same system supposedly set to benefit from gaming funds.
Why, they ask, does the County need to raise taxes and cut some 40 positions at a time of windfall millions?
Good question.