The next victim in Erie County’s fiscal nightmare could be its 52 libraries. Is this the last resort for Erie’s budget planners, or a game of political chicken?

On Friday, November 5, Erie County Executive Joel Giambra filed what he calls his “red” budget for 2005. The budget, which drastically slashes spending in libraries, Sheriff’s Department patrols, and human services agencies, reinforces his demand for a sales tax increase. Some have questioned whether this is an actual threat to our county services, or a political ploy to make a sales tax increase seem more reasonable.

The alternative, Giambra’s “green” budget, would add an extra penny on every dollar to sales tax and, according to Giambra, ultimately save the county from the $130 million deficit expected for next year.

Giambra encourages legislators to consider the “green” budget more favorably than the “red,” which he described to The Buffalo News as, “The budget that stops any discretionary spending, the budget that closes libraries, ends cultural funding, ends road patrols, ends county government as we know it.”

Although the “green” budget is less severe than the “red,” or “scorched-earth,” budget, it also threatens over 200 county jobs and many services offered to the public.

A decision by the Erie County legislature regarding the 2005 budget will need to be made by the December 7 deadline.

The Buffalo and Erie County Public Library system is sure to feel the effect of either budget.

Mike C. Mahaney, Library Director, says that the “red” budget will affect all of Erie County. “If the proposed ‘red’ budget gets passed, all public libraries will be closed,” he says.

“People will cease to be able to borrow library materials and there will be no programs or library technology,” Mahaney says. “People will still have to pay property tax, but it will be just enough to close down the libraries.”

UB students that rely on public libraries will also be affected, and “not just the ones that borrow books; online databases will be shut down as well,” says Mahaney.

“With the ‘green’ budget there would also be a severe cut,” says Mary Bobinski, Director of Public Libraries in Amherst. “We would have to significantly reduce our services.”

“The ‘red’ budget would wipe out every single public library,” Bobinski says, forcing the libraries to close their doors and cut off all services.

This budget, if passed, would create a county that Judith Robinson, Chair of the Department of Library Information Studies at the University at Buffalo, describes as “chilling.”

“I can’t imagine this community without the services that libraries offer,” Robinson says. “They are a very important part of our weekly lives here.”

Robinson says that libraries are a positive aspect of any community, allowing people of all ages to use them, without ever going in. The ability to borrow novels, magazines, movies, and music, coupled with access to computers and online databases and services that reach out to the community, make public libraries stand out.

“The public libraries offer services it is not the responsibility of the university library to offer,” Robinson says.

Robinson also points out that many UB students intern at public libraries, especially the Audobon Public Library, gaining experience in general and specialty librarian skills and web page design. “We would lose many venues for our students to work and learn from professionals in the field,” Robinson says.

Previously living in Florida and Washington D.C., Robinson has compared the systems there to those in Buffalo, saying that “our libraries have outshined them all.”

Robinson not only sees the immediate effects of the “red” budget, but also what the future will entail should it be passed. “If we put [the library system] to its knees,” Robinson says, “we would lose professionals, and the damage would not be easily or immediately fixed.”

There is always the possibility that the “red” budget will be passed, Robinson notes, simply because Giambra submitted it.

Democratic Majority Leader in the Erie County Legislature, Lynn Marinelli, confirms this possibility, saying that the “red” budget was the only one officially submitted to the legislature, and if there aren’t enough votes to change it, the “red” budget will go through by default.

Marinelli, who represents Tonawanda, also recognizes the future that the “red” budget would create, saying that it has “catastrophic ripples and effects.”

According to Marinelli, if the “red” budget does go through, the county has to find revenue sources for any of the programs that it reinstates.

“We have to work in a balanced budget,” she says.

There is no middle ground with Giambra, though, Marinelli suggests. “He does this kind of stuff in an either/or way,” she says. “Either we raise taxes, or we cut services.”

John Scheffer, Director of UB Institute for Local Governance and Regional Development, says that Giambra may have presented the “red” budget partly to balance the budget, which is “wildly out of balance,” and partly to get people’s attention.

“[Without] dramatic reform in Medicaid or cutbacks in services, there’s no way to get it in balance without a tax increase,” Scheffer says.

“I don’t believe it’s rational to put [the ‘red’ budget] in place and not seek a better solution,” Scheffer says, admitting that the “green” budget would not be rational either. Somewhere between the two would be the best.

With the “red” budget, Scheffer says that there is no way to avoid pain, coming in the form of higher taxes and decreased services. The budget planners now have the job of finding a way to “distribute the pain evenly,” he says.

Scheffer offers that the solution to Erie County’s fiscal problems could be found in a more aggressive economic development plan, not just in distributing the pain.

“Short term decisions need to be made in the context of the long,” Scheffer says. “We shouldn’t cut off our nose to spite our face.”

Elise Cusack, a Republican Erie County legislator from the fourteenth district, doesn’t see raising taxes as the best way to solve the county’s problems either, because it is a “short term solution to long term problems.”

Cusack comments on reasons behind Giambra’s “scorched-earth” budget, saying, “Clearly, when you look at the numbers, we have a ‘scorched earth’ because we have no Medicaid reform.”

If the county put pressure on state government for allowing early retirement, Cusack says, costs could go down. She says to remove some of the people they are paying salaries for who want to retire.

“We (Erie County) are overtaxed,” Cusack says, pointing out that Erie County’s taxes are 64 percent above the national average.

Cusack also points out, though, that in a state full of counties in financial trouble, Erie County was one of few that didn’t have to raise taxes last year. “We’ve been lucky, and fairly smart in how we’ve dealt with these issues,” she says.

Dr. James Holmes of the Economics Department at UB says that the politicians are the ones to point fingers at.

“[Politicians] maximize the pain to their constituents to make them aware of the cuts,” Holmes says, adding, “We have one of the highest tax rates in the country.”

He looks to other cities to compare with. “How is it that different from, say Indianapolis, Indiana?” Holmes asks. “I would bet their taxes are at least 50 percent less than ours.”

Holmes asks, “Does the state of New York provide anything more to its citizens?”

“My impression is that their expenditures are a half of ours and their taxes are a half of ours,” he answers, comparing Buffalo to Indianapolis. “I don’t think the quality of life is that much better.”

The party line becomes blurred for politicians when it comes to money, says Holmes. “It doesn’t matter which party you’re in, they all want to spend more,” he says, suggesting that politicians have no desire to reduce expenditures.

According to Holmes, the situation is analogous to Enron, where he says the managers were irresponsible and were not thinking in the interest of the employees.

Politicians act that way because “they think they can fool the taxpayers and get away with it,” says Holmes. “Unless they get some political responses and if they think they can’t get elected with these patronage jobs, this will continue. I’m sure there is immense amounts of fat and patronage in the Erie County budget.”

Speaking of New York State politicians, Holmes says, “They badly need to cut expenditures and they choose to do it in the worst and most irresponsible way.”

He says that such a drastic cut in public libraries will decrease literacy and ultimately cause people to regress.

On Tuesday, December 7, circulation within the public libraries of Erie County will stop. All books will have to be returned, and be put onto the shelves. Since libraries rely on having a fraction of their books being circulated at all times, stacks will begin to form on the floor.

After all the materials have been collected, the doors of every public library in Erie County will close their doors without indication of ever opening again. The shelves will remain full and the floor covered with books that might never get read again.

“Why should he [Giambra] start with just the library?” Holmes asks sarcastically. “Why doesn’t he just cut off the water or cut off the sewer?”