COLLINS — Members of the Collins Town Board and the public were the audience to a very informative presentation by civic leader Kevin Gaughan. Gaughan shared his findings from a five-month study in which he partnered with a group of student researchers from the State University at Buffalo School of Law. They divided into two teams and tackled the 47 jurisdictions that make up Erie County.
Gaughan explained the biggest reason for his study was his love of this area. “All of us share a collective concern for the recent past and indeed the future of what I consider to be the greatest city and region in America,” he stated.
Gaughan’s findings revealed some staggering figures, such as 439, which is the number of elected officials that run Erie County and 32,140,386, which is the dollar amount that these officials are paid each year. His findings also indicate that Erie County has as many as 10 times the number of elected officials as other regions of comparable size in America.
Other conclusions resulting from Gaughan’s study include the following:
n Residents of Erie County pay the fourth highest property taxes in America.
n The city of Buffalo is the second-most impoverished city in America.
n Forty-thousand private sector jobs have “vanished” since 1970 and 7,000 public sector or government jobs have been added.
“The only thing that’s risen — in the county of Erie in the past 45 years — is the number of free school lunches in the public school,” Gaughan said, “which is of course a measure of impoverishment.”
One of Gaughan’s biggest concerns is the continuing exodus out of Western New York. “Since 1970, we’ve lost 238,000 of our brothers and sisters,” he said. “What that means is that every hour and 40 minutes, someone walks out of Erie County — not because they want to, not because they don’t like us, but because they have to for lack of opportunity,” Gaughan added.
Gaughan also reported that Erie County has another infamous record. “In the entire history of America, no county has lost a higher percentage of young people between the ages of 18 and 24 than Erie County; we’ve lost 30 percent of them just since 1990,” he said. He went on to say, “With them, they take our future.”
After discussing the problem and some possible causes, Gaughan presented his solution, in the form of a resolution which he asked the board to consider. The resolution would provide for downsizing the town board by two members through a retirement program.
Erie County, the city of Buffalo, the town of Tonawanda, the village of Depew, and the village of Lancaster have all downsized their legislative bodies over the past several years. If every local municipality adopts this downsizing plan, 88 elected officials would be eliminated. Gaughan asserts that this would result in considerable savings to taxpayers.
“This idea of mine, on its own, by myself cannot succeed, but with your leadership and that of every town and village throughout Erie County, it cannot fail,” he said.
There was a brief question and answer time at the end of the presentation. Councilman Alan Butzer asked, “Isn’t this more of a statewide problem — is it really just an Erie County issue?”
Gaughan agreed that the problem reaches beyond the Greater Buffalo Region, and he explained the reason for narrow focus. “I’m a Western New Yorker, the only thing I can change — and we can change is the county of Erie.”
The town of Collins marks the 35th stop in Gaughan’s quest to restore the local economy.
Gaughan’s complete report can be viewed at http://www.TheCost.org.Co'>www.TheCost.org.Co
