Erie County Executive Brenton Davis has made efficiency the centerpiece of his proposed 2025 budget.
The budget proposal, which Davis delivered to Erie County Council on Tuesday, doesn’t contain a property tax increase ― like the previous year’s ― but rather relies on sweeping cuts, from reorganizing departments, eliminating vacant positions and reducing non-mandated costs.
The proposal nonetheless totals $582 million, nearly $3 million more than the adopted 2024 budget. It also includes $139.2 million in general fund expenditures, a $5.1 million increase from the adopted 2024 budget.
Davis, who spoke to reporters at the Erie County Courthouse, said his proposal uses $3.8 million from the county’s fund balance to help balance the budget.
“That’s the rainy day fund,” Davis said of the fund balance. “It’s there to keep taxes low.”
While Davis said his proposal is now “at the whim of Erie County Council,” he cautioned that he would not be comfortable with added expenses, insisting additional line items would only add “further liability on the back of Erie County taxpayers.”
“I’m fully prepared to veto any addition that’s put back into this budget,” he said.
Reorganizing departments, eliminating vacancies to save money
Davis’s proposal includes reorganizations of the Erie County Public Library, the Erie County Department of Health, the Erie County Department of Public Safety and the Erie County Prison. The reorganizations eliminate vacant positions, boost efficiency and allow for more internal job growth opportunities for employees, he said.
The proposal also eliminates 74 long-standing vacant positions, which, according to Davis, would save the county more than $4.5 million.
“The mistake in budgeting that we’ve made for a long time in county government … is we’ve projected this $5 million balloon payment unnecessarily on the heads of county taxpayers,” Davis said. “This year, we really drilled down on that … and made those eliminations.”
Davis stressed the eliminations only impact vacant positions and that “no one loses their job” in his proposal.
The new budget also reduces unmandated travel costs and defunds the county’s Human Relations Commission, while requesting an additional $1 million toward the county’s homeless overflow shelter at 450 E. 16th St., and $500,000 in improvements for in-home childcare facilities.
Davis touts Rescue Plan investments
Davis further touted his administration’s investments of American Rescue Plan funds.
Flanked by two charts that showed ARP investments across the county, Davis noted that $3.6 million in ARP funds that were awarded to projects countywide have already been leveraged to accrue $16.8 million. Another $7 million are expected to be leveraged to $25.7 million. Put together, he said, the leveraged funds have provided Erie County with an additional $43 million.
“This is the most progressive budget in Erie County history … we’ve never seen historic investments of $43 million on a return,” he said.
Erie County received a total of $52 million in ARP funds between 2021 and 2022.
County Council leadership voice concerns
County Council Chairman Terry Scutella, who received a copy of the budget at Tuesday’s news conference, said he was concerned about the defunding of the Human Relations Commission, an organization that falls under the purview of Erie County Council and that investigates complaints of discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations.
The commission has been vacant since May and council has referred inquiries to the Pittsburgh branch of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission in the interim.
Davis has argued the county’s HRC office provides a duplicative service to the state. Scutella disagreed.
“The HRC takes care of the most needy people,” Scutella said. “Is there a place they can go instead of Erie County? Yeah, Pittsburgh. But how many can get to Pittsburgh? Those are the things that we have to work toward.”
Council Finance Committee Chairman Rock Copeland also expressed worries about the budget.
“I find it incredibly frustrating that following a record tax increase that we still have no control over our spending to the extent that now we’re going to do $3.9 million in deficit spending,” he said. “It’s irresponsible.”
Council must adopt the budget by Dec. 1.
A.J. Rao can be reached at arao@gannett.com. Follow him on X @ETNRao.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Brenton Davis unveils cost cuts in proposed 2025 Erie County PA budget
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