BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — A small property tax cut highlights the proposed 2026 budget in Erie County, county executive Mark Poloncarz said Wednesday.
If the proposed budget goes through the rate will be $3.09 per thousand dollars on the assessed value of the house, a decrease from $3.29 in the 2025 budget.
Poloncarz did note that some may see their taxes go up on totality when things like school taxes, library taxes, sewer taxes and other county-related taxes are considered.
The proposed budget announced by Poloncarz on Wednesday comes out to just under $2.1 billion.
The county is projecting a 1.5% growth in sales taxes in 2026 as the sales tax remains at 8.75%. Just under half of those taxes goes to New York State, while 4.75% goes to the county to keep for themselves and also to distribute to cities, towns and the NFTA. The county projects that the City of Buffalo will receive $120 million in sales tax revenue and the school district will get $63 million. By comparison, all of the other cities, towns and villages will get $142 million combined.
“If this was based on population, the City of Buffalo would receive a substantial less amount,” Poloncarz said during the event on Wednesday morning. “But the City of Buffalo gets two bites at the apple under the sales tax sharing agreement so they get more than what would be a population-based sharing of the sales tax.”
The county is expecting a slight increase in both state and federal aid in 2026.
Poloncarz said that nearly half of the county’s expenses goes towards health and human services, followed by economic and community development, which includes sales tax sharing. The county expects to spend more money in 2025 but much of it is due to mandated expenses, including sales tax sharing as well as childcare and family assistance. The county expects to spend $14.5 million more on safety net programs for people that still qualify for it.
The county is planning on increasing their contributions to ECMC, as well as changes associated to the sheriff’s office, DA’s office, county jail and ambulance services.
In total, the county proposed $230.8 million on non-mandated expenses, including tourism promotion, money going to the Buffalo Convention Center as well as towards arts and cultural programs.
“Most challenging budget we’ve had in a few years,” Poloncarz said. “We do see an increase in the budget, most of it for mandated expenses. We have limited new spending, we were able to reduce the property tax rate.”
You can view Poloncarz’s full news conference in the video player above.
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