As Election Day approaches, Democratic mayoral candidate Daria Devlin says the city's budget is heading towards a fiscal cliff.

On Thursday, Devlin held a news conference, to address what she describes as unaddressed issues with the city's future budgets.

"In year 2026, we're looking at a $9-million deficit," said Devlin. "It's in black and white, right on the last page of the mayor's own budget for 2025. This is only going to get worse. Also, we have some long-term debt service payments that will kick in, and that's just going to really exacerbate the problem, so by 2033, less than 10 years from now, $20-million is what we'll be projecting."

However, according to Mayor Joe Schember, that's not the case.

"We always face that kind of deficit and we eliminate it, and we'll do it again next year," said Mayor Schember. "We're not going to have a $9 million deficit next year. There is no way at all. I didn't get a chance to hear her at all, but she says things at a high level. We're actually doing things, getting them done and moving forward. I'm very proud of that, and we want to continue doing that for four more years."

I asked both candidates how they plan on preventing future deficits.

"We create a five-year plan," said Mayor Schember. "We did that five years ago, and now we are creating another five-year plan of how we want to do this, what we want to get down, how we want to do it. Ideally...I'm told I shouldn't say this publicly but I'm going to anyway. I really would not like to increase taxes for the rest of my, assuming I get re-elected, for four more years after this."

"Number one, transparency as I've mentioned," said Devlin. "Let's make sure the public and our elected officials understand our budget. Number two, lets create a plan for long-term financial health, bring in experts to help us really address this issue. Where do the cuts need to be made? Number three, explore these revenue options."

I also asked both candidates about the Erie County Democratic Party's decision to endorse Devlin for the primary election.

"We kind of knew they were going to endorse her," said Mayor Schember. "I already knew that, so it didn't really surprise us. Of course, we were a little disappointed. We would have liked them, but they chose to do that. That's their decision going forward."

"At the end of the day, the voters make this decision," said Devlin. "I think with the party standing up and saying they believe it's time for change, hopefully more voters will pay attention, educate themselves and agree that it's time for a change in leadership in the city."

I also spoke with Democratic candidate Sheila Woeger, and asked her what her top priority is if elected.

"I want to look at the books and go over the budget line-by-line to see how the money is being spent and that it's going to the appropriate places," said Woeger. "I also want to meet with city employees one on one to see what we can do better for the people of Erie."

Meanwhile, Republican candidate Matthew Thomas is the only Republican on the ballot for the May 20 primary.