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Instead of doing it behind the scenes, the Legislature is brazenly giving this political payoff in full view of all of us.

So is this how they are going to work against us? This is outrageous. We are told over and over that we can’t afford anything, the need to raise taxes is imminent, state mandates are killing us, Medicaid takes every penny of the county property taxes so there is no money for playroom in the budget. BUT, when it come to sucking up to their unions, paying them off and paying them back for all the campaign work, phone calls, literature drops, donations etc, etc, etc…. This is a bonus plain and simple and it has to be stopped.

Since when do we bribe people to come to the table to negotiate a contract? We don’t. You want a new contract then come to the table and talk. One thing that I cannot stand is the Taylor Law and Triborough Amendment. This ensures that the employees give up nothing, nothing and we have to give up everything. Don’t tell me they don’t have a contract or haven’t received a raise in 3 years, the current contract continues on until the taxpayers give up something else. When are the tables going to get turned?

“I favor a policy of economy, not because I wish to save money, but because I wish to save people. The men and women of this country who toil are the ones who bear the cost of the government. Every dollar that we save means that their life will be so much the more abundant. Economy is idealism in its most practical form.” —Calvin Coolidge

County Union Gets Raise, Before Collins Negotiates

Buffalo, NY (WBEN) - As an incentive to draw the county’s blue-collar work force to the bargaining table, The Erie County Legislature has approved a lump-sum payment for AFSCME Local 1095 despite objections from County Executive Chris Collins who vows to try and stop it, possibly with intervention from Buffalo’s Fiscal Control Board.

The legislature approved the $1 million plan Thursday, because the lack of a contract with the 1,600 workers left them without cost-of-living increases given other unions over the past two years.

“It was … specifically for the year 2005, and it is a one- time payment for the local employees,” says Legislator Betty-Jean Grant.
“The signal this sends to the unions is to bypass the county executive’s office and go across the street to the legislature, where they are going to be very open minded about handing out money we don’t have,”

–Erie County Executive Chris Collins

The lump-sum payments will give each worker about$600, with a total county cost of approx. $960,000. They come in a year when Collins and his administration face contract negotiations with all 7 unions in the county’s workforce.

“It’s a budget breaker. It would indicate our legislators think we don’t have a fiscal budget crisis, but in fact we do, and we have a hard control board because of it. This is just a bad …vote, which long-term is going to impact.. my ability to negotiate in good faith,” Collins said, on the same day when legislators rejected a proposed $30,000 salary increase for his County Attorney-designate Cheryl Green.

“I would call it a million-dollar payoff to the AFSCME union special interests, which was highly irresponsible move by our legislature,” Collins says. ”

“The signal this sends to the unions is to bypass the county executive’s office and go across the street to the legislature, where they are going to be very open minded about handing out money we don’t have,” Collins said.

The legislature passed the measure with the belief that it would not need approval from the county fiscal control board. Collins says he is not sure whether the board can stop the raise, but he hopes to explore that Friday.

In 2006, a fact finder recommended that the county give AFSCME a 7 percent raise, but only if they were willing to accept longer summer hours, fewer sick days, and higher health insurance contributions. They union rejected that and remained at impasse with then county-executive Joel Giambra.

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