Erie County Council voted tonight (Tuesday) to increase tax income by 2.5 Million dollars and cut 37 positions from the county workforce.  It’s too bad jobs have to be cut, anytime, but especially during these troubling times.  The increase in taxes, on the other hand, was necessary to replace pension funds lost in the recent market downturn.

Personally, I lost a lot of bucks during the market fall back in the early 2000s, and no one came forward to replace any of my losses.  Now I get to help assure that all those  county employees that still have a job will not have to suffer the losses like those of us in the private sector.  HUH?????

 Of course, that 4 Million that the county spent on new office space for the DA, County Executive, (and his mouthpiece) and a couple other lucky souls, could have saved quite a few jobs and prevented a tax increase to boot.  Oh, wait.  That money could only be spent on this over done project.  Question is, why does the county not try to find grant money to help keep the 37 employees on the job?  Then again, I guess it must be easier to find grant money for expensive remodelling than it is to find money for necessary services.  Right Councilfolk???

You can read about the increase as reported on Your Erie, here.