Erie County Council is gathering public input, as it attempts to pass a budget for 2024.

On Tuesday, members of the community met with Erie County Council to voice concerns over potential cuts.

The $582.7 million dollar budget is the largest budget in Erie County's history.

Erie County Executive Brenton Davis' proposal calls for a property tax increase of 0.85 mills, or $85.00 per $100,000 of property value.

Davis originally vowed to not raise taxes during his first four years in government.

However, Davis said inflation, the pandemic, and union contracts have contributed to higher costs across all areas of government.

"I know it's on the table," said Erie County Council Chairman Brian Shank. "I've always been very,very forward and straight and honest about it. I won't vote for it. We have a spending problem. We don't have an income problem. We have a spending problem. Until these are addressed, we're going to be in this same problem here next year."

Over the past several weeks, council members have been going through the proposal, line by line, in an attempt to make cuts.

According to Erie County Councilman Terry Scutella, they don't have many options.

"Not too many things we can do," said Scutella. "We can raise taxes. We can use the fund balance. An option of laying off employees is not there because we have a lot of spots that we can fill, or have been trying to fill since the pandemic, so to me that isn't an option."

Erie County Council will host a work session for the budget on Saturday, at 9:00 a.m.