Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz is sounding the alarm on President Donald Trump’s budget proposal — warning of devastating consequences for the county.
According to Poloncarz, the proposed budget would cost Erie County more than $12.3 million in 2026, and over $100 million by 2028.
"This isn't about waste, fraud and abuse, and to say that they were not going to cut Medicaid and things like that is false. They're cutting people out of Medicaid. They're cutting people out of the SNAP program. They're passing on costs to the state and local governments. They're requiring us in this new bill, if it passes in its current format, and it looks like it's going to pass the House, that we'd have to hire people. More people, spending our own dollars to do compliance, to prevent abuse, which in all likelihood doesn't exist in the first place. So I think it's important for the public to know that what's going on in Washington is is completely, completely wrong," stated Poloncarz.
Poloncarz says if Trump was serious about targeting waste, fraud, and abuse, he wouldn’t have fired dozens of federal employees whose jobs were specifically to do just that.
"The President fired 80 people in the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight. This oversees the Affordable Care Act to ensure that it's being run properly and it's not being abused. And then the President fired 200 people in the Office of Program Operations and local engagement in Medicaid. Medicaid is one of the largest programs in all of the United States, and you can't eliminate the individuals who do the oversight of it and expect it to run better and more efficiently," Poloncarz said.
Poloncarz says programs such as HEAP, Head Start, CDBG and HOME, Section 8, PHEP, the EPA Revolving Water Fund, and AmeriCorps would face total funding cuts under the proposed budget.
"The EPA revolving water fund, which has done a tremendous job of helping to clean up the Buffalo River, is gone. And AmeriCorps, the program that is the basis for RSVP program, is gone. So we have received notice that our program, that we went to court for, and we the federal government backed down, the whole program has been eliminated. So the RSVP program and Senior Services, in all likelihood, if this passes under the current budget form, will be eliminated once the next federal budget year takes effect," he said. "So even though we went to court to fight it, they're limiting the whole program, not just for Erie County, but nationwide, and that includes the AmeriCorps VISTA program, the AmeriCorps RSVP program, other programs that AmeriCorps does."
Under the current proposal, seniors would be required to keep working until they turn 64 in order to maintain their SNAP benefits.
"Someone's retired and they're 61 or 62-years-old, and they're getting SNAP benefits, they would be forced to go back to work to get their benefits. If they didn't go back to work, they would lose their benefits. So seniors could be impacted with that. And it also removes the exemption for working families by reducing dependent child age from eight under 18 to under seven. So it really impacts the amount of money that the families could receive based on this number. And it also would change what's the working households reducing their SNAP benefit number, we think, as a result of the provisions that they have in place," Poloncarz said.
Poloncarz says the county would be forced to hire 36 additional employees in the SNAP Compliance Department to oversee the proposed changes—at a cost of $3.2 million—which, he says "would take away benefits from people."
"I urge everyone to contact their congressional representative, no matter who that is, and let them know that these cuts are unacceptable. While the president is accepting a $400 million bribe from a foreign dictator he’s simultaneously taking away critical programs and services that residents in communities nationwide, including Erie County, rely on to improve their everyday lives. Now is the time to speak up against these injustices and I implore everyone to do so."