Erie County, N.Y. (WBEN) - The Erie County Legislators during session Thursday unanimously moved forward with an amended bond resolution with negotiations to ease the burden of those paying taxes on projects like the new Bills stadium, while still addressing infrastructure needs for the county's capital projects.
Several weeks prior, Republican Erie County lawmakers struck down the initial $44 million dollar bond proposal, as they were reluctant to approve funding for more projects as prior approved projects from the last several years, paid for by both cash and bonds, have not been started or completed. In addition to taking into account taxpayers are already paying interest on borrowed money on previously approved work that hasn't been completed.
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As a compromise, Erie County will be paying $25 million dollars in cash toward the stadium from Erie County's 2022 surplus towards the cost of the new Bills stadium, which will be $25 million dollars of less debt owed in the future.
The County will also be reducing overall borrowing by $6.6 million dollars in the bond resolution itself, by converting projects to cash.
“The agreement reached is a win for everyone,” said Erie County Legislator and Erie County Minority Leader John Mills. “We are going to pay for a number of things in cash from surplus dollars. This means we aren’t going to keep running up the tab on money Erie County borrows to pay for projects that don’t get done.”
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In addition, as per legislative resolution, there will be more transparency regarding the status of already approved projects, by requiring Administration to provide monthly progress reports for approved projects.
"The opening of transparency is a win win for everybody," said the newest legislator, Jim Malczewski. "Not just today, moving down the road, and taking the business approach to this whole thing, I think it's win win."
The legislator was very pleased with the passing of the amended resolution.
"This is government working together. As we opened it up, I believe the latest figure shows about $50 million in savings to the residents. So that's government at its finest right there."
In addition, the resolution and additional negotiations will result in:
- Erie County paying off $9.5 million in existing bonds to the old Bills stadium using cash.
- Taxpayers saving more than $16 million in interest payments over the life of the bonds, which brings the total decrease to the amount Erie County must borrow for the stadium to $50 million over two years, which saves $32 million in interest over the life of the loan.
- Erie County appropriates $125 million of the $250 million Erie County agreed to pay for the new stadium, saving taxpayers more than $80 million over the life of the loan by utilizing available cash surplus instead of borrowing.
- $1.1 million will be invested in the community equally spread throughout legislative districts.
- Phase 1 of reconstruction work will finally get underway for New Road in Amherst.