GOOD NEWS ON TAX DAY: ERIE COUNTY’S LONG-TERM DEBT REDUCED BY $98 MILLION SINCE 2012

Modified: April 15, 2019 4:55pm

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Date: 
4/15/19

The Erie County Division of Budget and Management today announced that Erie County’s long-term debt burden has been reduced by close to $100 million since January 1, 2012, a decrease of nearly 25% in the seven years since Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz took office. On December 31, 2011 Erie County’s long-term debt burden was $416,691,804 but that figure had been reduced by $98 million, to $318,235,000, by December 31, 2018. Long-term debt is incurred when the county borrows funds to conduct infrastructure projects such as road and bridge repair as well as improvements to or purchase of buildings, IT and other long term needs.

 

“I'm proud of my record of ending every year with a balanced county budget, cutting the county’s real property tax rate to the lowest it has been in two decades, and reducing the county's long-term debt burden by nearly $100 million over seven years.  At the same time that we have been reducing that debt, my administration has been investing heavily in infrastructure projects around Erie County,” said Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz. “While the federal debt and deficit have been exploding, here in Erie County my administration’s prudent budgeting and tight fiscal stewardship are lessening our debt burden and moving Erie County in the right direction, as the steady decline in our long-term debt obligation shows.  I was your taxpayer watchdog as comptroller and still am as your executive.”

 

The federal debt, which stood at $14.7 trillion at the end of 2011, grew to over $21.5 trillion by the end of 2018, an increase exacerbated by corporate tax cuts passed by the republican congressional majority in 2017.

 

 

For more information:

 

On the Erie County Division of Budget and Management, visit http://www2.erie.gov/budget/ 

 

 

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