Giambra's counterproposal du jour

I caught only a small portion of Giambra's 6:00 press conference today. WBEN has the story, or at least a part of it:

Giambra Seeks Sales Tax Hike Again WBEN Newsroom - Thursday, February 10, 2005 06:59 PM Buffalo, NY (WBEN) - Erie County Executive Joel Giambra says he is trying again to increase revenue for the county. He's looking to increase the sales tax by 7/8th percent. Giambra says this sales tax proposal is for one year increase. "I will never ask for this again," says Giambra. Giambra says the sales tax increase would raise $97.5 million in revenue for the remainder of the year, so there will be more cuts in his department and in other elected officials' departments. "After cutting so much, there would be no ability to share the revenue with the city of Buffalo," notes Giambra. But he says he proposes restoring support for the East Side Solid Waste Transfer station because it is a regional function.

I heard that he's calling for all County offices - the Clerk, Comptroller, Sheriff, and his office, et al. - to cut 10% of their budgets, and lay off all "so-called patronage" jobs, which he defined as non-civil service confidential staffers. Everything sounds like a good start except for the unnerving gall he has to call for a sales tax increase. It's already 8.25%. Work with the money you have.