Election Day events are still dominating the news this morning, a day and a half after the polls closed.

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Welcome to the newly refreshed but still awesome ErieBlogs.com. Happy Monday!

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U.S. Congresswoman Kathleen Dahlkemper has co-sponsored The Locomotive Fleet Investment and Tax Credit Act of 2009.  The tax credit is intended to encourage all aspects of the locomotive industry, through increased manufacturing, sales, and purchasing.  By increasing demand, the act should also preserve jobs in the industry.  The act would create a 30% tax credit.  [...]

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Folks, we know it stinks, but please, when you brush the snow off your car, get all the windows, especially the back one. Here’s a photo and post from CambridgeSprings.net yesterday.
Joe Sinnott has announced he will seek a second term as mayor of the city of Erie.
Congresswoman Kathy Dahlkemper voted in favor of the American [...]

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Judge William Cunningham has upheld his sentencing of Teri Rhodes. Rhodes pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of her newborn baby. Judge Cunningham sentenced Rhodes last fall to 9 to 18 years in prison. There will be a hearing on February 4 to determine if Rhodes can be released on bail pending her appeal. [...]

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Tonight is Erie’s downtown d’Lights beginning at 6 p.m. The annual lighting of downtown Erie kicks of the Christmas Season with a number of events.  If you take pictures of the event and upload them to your Flickr or some other image repository, let us know and we’ll link to your pictures in tomorrow’s news [...]

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Happy Thanksgiving!  There might be some snow showers today and a high of 39 degrees.  Stay warm and be safe traveling.
What are you thankful for today? Post a comment and share your thoughts.
If you think it’s been snowing a lot lately, you’re correct. As of Tuesday, Erie had already been received 19 [...]

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Be careful tonight as Thanksgiving Eve is a popular “bar night.”  Those coming in from out of town are reuniting with old friends, or simply getting a last few drinks in before spending a long day with family.  Some bars claim today rivals St. Patty’s and New Year’s Eve attendance.
Weather conditions for the next few [...]

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Three days until Thanksgiving.  We can practically taste the stuffing.
Please be sure to follow the odd/even regulations regarding parking in the City of Erie. People not following those rules have made it difficult for city crews to get all the side streets plowed.
The owners of Molly Brannigans are due in court in South Bend, Indiana. [...]

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Teri Rhodes will appear before court today for sentencing. Rhodes pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter this past August for the murder of her own child whom she gave birth in her Mercyhurst apartment and immediately suffocated to death. Rhodes was a sophmore attending Mercyhurst when she gave birth to the full-term baby girl [...]

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Former Erie firefighter Mary Wolski, who lost her job after setting her father’s house on fire in 2006, filed a complaint in federal court in an attempt to fight her termination. Wolski claims she was fired in violation of the American with Disabilities Act since she suffered from severe depression and that the City [...]

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The Erie Times-News announced yesterday they will offer buyouts to 25 employees, or about 9% of their work force in a cost-cutting move. Employees were notified of the cuts during a meeting yesterday afternoon. We certainly don’t mean to poke any fun at the pain of losing a job,but when we read the story at GoErie, [...]

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The US House of Representatives did not pass the bailout bill yesterday afternoon. The already shaky markets responded by closing down 777 points. Ouch, babe. Rep. Phil English voted against the bill yesterday. He released a statement saying, in part:
While I support the need for congressional action to stabilize the credit markets, the legislation negotiated [...]

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The Erie Block Party, held most Thursday evenings during the summer, will be held this week at Jr’s Last Laugh Comedy Club featuring the rock band M-80’s. The event theme is “Take You Back” and benefits Vietnam Veterans Chapter 435. Upcoming block parties:
August 14 – No block party; CelebrateErie begins.
August 21 at Matthew’s [...]

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First on the docket today, several local companies announced earnings reports yesterday. Here’s a brief recap:

Erie Indemnity Company, parent company of Erie Insurance, released their quarterly earnings report yesterday. Net income per share was $0.71, down from $1.11 compared to the second quarter of last year. ERIE shares closed yesterday at $45.14. If you want [...]

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Kevin Flowers of the Times-News had an interesting story yesterday about the recent turnover of TV news reporters and anchors in Erie. Some are staying local and moving to different jobs, such in the cases of Pat Van Zandt and Karla Mullenax Wluydga, while others are using Erie as a springboard to jobs in bigger, [...]

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Erie City Council unanimously passed Erie Mayor Joe Sinnott’s proposed 2008 $57.1 million budget. A second reading is still required. All members of Erie City Council as well as Mayor Joe Sinnott are tax-and-spend liberal Democrats. Council ignored $335,500 in budget cuts recommended by their own accountant, Sean T Sullivan, CPA. Here are the recommended [...]

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The proposed 2008 city budget is not available on the city web site. Guess they don’t want the peasants getting their hands on the information. Or maybe the 4 people working in the information technology office (2007 office budget of $268,572; $246,977 in wages and benefits for 4 people, average per person of $61,744) can’t [...]

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The City of Erie had a budget deficit of $1.3 million in 2006. That’s according to the draft of the audit done by the regional CPA firm of McGill, Power, Bell and Associates. One of the requirements to have Erie declared a distressed city under Act 47, the Distressed Municipalities Financial Recovery Act, is five [...]

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Erie County Executive Mark DiVecchio’s 2008 preliminary budget calls for a .25 mill tax increase. The enormous amount of property taxes is a big reason why Erie can’t attract new businesses. DiVecchio must want people and existing businesses to move away. According to The Tax Foundation in their 2006 report on Property Taxes on Owner [...]

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I received more info on the City of Erie health care insurance. The city budgeted $16,500 per employee and councilperson for 2007.
In response to the questions you posed related to my e-mail, I have some additional information for you. First of all, the City of Erie is “self insured.” They pay the actual costs of [...]

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I received the following from a reader that brings up a great point -
I’m just wondering why there has not been any ink given to the City of Erie’s 2007 Budget. Of particular interest to me was the overstating of the “estimated” health insurance costs. The budget allocates approximately $16,500 for each city employee, even [...]

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Carpet bombing of the city wouldn’t have caused as much damage as Erie City Council manged to do yesterday.
Council passed a $59.88 million budget for the City of Erie for 2007. Council did zero work to cut any costs. The budget proposed by the mayor was just rubber stamped by council. This could be due [...]

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Want to laugh a little, cry a little? I’ve posted the 2007 City of Erie budget online. You have to see the budget for 2007 Erie City Council operations. If you’ll remember the mayor and council were trying to get the city unions to give concessions and contribute to their health benefits. Maybe that was [...]

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Erie City Council held a Saturday budget session and rubber stamped the budget submitted by Mayor Joe Sinnott making only one minor change of $24,000 to the $59.9 million budget. The formal vote on the budget will be held at the regular council meeting on December 20. Council made no cuts to the budget only [...]

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Erie Mayor Joe Sinnott yesterday submitted his budget to Erie City Council. It calls for a 12.14 percent increase in property taxes of 1.24 mills, the elimination of 16 firefighters and the sale of the Erie Golf Course. Although departments were asked to cut expenses, no job cuts will be made in the 5 story [...]

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Mayor Joe Sinnott will present his 2007 budget to the Erie Chapter of the Flat Earth Society, aka Erie City Council, this morning at 9 am. Without a shadow of a doubt, it will call for an increase of property taxes. Property owners will have the double whammy of lower property values along with the [...]

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A Pennsylvania State Police Clandestine Lab Response Team took part a meth lab bust in Wesleyville. This marks the 9th lab that this team has cleaned up on 3 weeks.
There is an excellent article by Mike Bucsko in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about the budget troubles Erie is experiencing. Pittsburgh entered a state-mandated financial recovery plan [...]

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Erie City Council passed it’s $54.8M 2006 budget on Wednesday. Current City Councilman and mayor-elect Joe Sinnott, Jim Thompson and Pat Cappabianca fought till the end for a higher property tax increase. What a bunch of bastards. Only a token effort was made to cut costs throughout the entire budget process. Fiduciary responsibility is a [...]

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Erie City Council will vote to pass the budget for 2006 at their meeting tonight. Mayor Rick Filippi said he won’t veto it because council has enough votes to override any veto. It includes a property tax increase, an earned income tax increase, a sewer rate increase, a garbage rate increase and an amusement tax [...]

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The Marxist-Leninist socialists on Erie City Council obviously agree that raising taxes is easier than cutting spending. They are raising every tax and fee that they can. With this move, businesses and residents will continue in even greater numbers to move beyond the city limits. Council finally agreed on a balanced budget by raising property [...]

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Erie City Council yesterday held yet another budget session. Once again, there was no talk of cutting expenses, only raising taxes. They agreed to a tax on rental properties of $40. This amount could be raised possibly up to $100 because the vote was only preliminary. It must still pass two readings to become an [...]

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Therapeutic Riding of Erie County promotes the benefit of the horse for individuals with physical, emotional and learning disabilities. They are raising money to offset medical care costs for Archie, a quarter horse. If you wish to make a donation to help defray medical costs, checks can be sent to: Therapeutic Riding of Erie County, [...]

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Erie City Council held another budget meeting yesterday. Watching this clown show for 10 minutes can convince anyone that they haven’t done their homework. No members have done any research on what other cities have done. On Tuesday, council listened for over 2 hours while members of the sports and art community convinced them to [...]

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City of Erie AFSCME members tabled a vote on agreeing to pay 15 percent of their health care coverage. They didn’t want to agree to it and then have the police and firefighters say no way. Mayor-elect Joe Sinnot said it is an all or nothing proposition with the three unions. If all the unions [...]

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Old-fashioned type post card by the talented Ron Richardson. Click on the image for a full size view. His Flick.com photos can be seen here and his photography site can be found here.
The City of Erie sent out two week notices to 26 city employees. Many were politcal appointees that will be replaced when Mayor-elect [...]

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Current Erie City Councilman and Mayor-elect Joe Sinnott met with union represenative asking that their members pay 10 to 15 percent of their health care costs. After the laughter died down, they agreed to ask their members to vote on the measure. There might have been a chance of the unions agreeing to it if [...]

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The City of Erie budget talks continue to headline the area news. The budget is still millions from being balanced. Instead of looking for cuts, the majority of council (Jim Thompson, Jim Casey, Ian Murray, Joseph Sinnott) seem to have taken the cowards way out and are calling for a property tax increase to make [...]

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Pennsylvania Act 47 is the law that allows the state to take over cities that qualify for ‘distressed city status.’ Every day that passes, this looks more likely. There are a couple of people in Harrisburg that should pack their bags and start filling out change of address forms. Yesterday, instead of working on budget [...]

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Erie City Council holds another budget meeting today. They have until the end of the year to approve a budget and so far they have done zero work on it. They get their faces on TV and do interviews but as for their jobs….nothing. They talk and listen to department heads. They lack leadership and [...]

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Erie City Council yesterday held a budget review session for the proposed 2006 budget They focused on the Public Works Department. Plans call for 19 workers to be layed-off with a savings of about $2.3 million. However, those 19 workers are teamsters with bumping rights so most of them will still have jobs next year. [...]

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Erie PA was spared from a heavy snowfall. The CIty of Erie received 2-4 inches of snow. Strong winds forced most of the snow inland. Corry PA, in Southeast Erie County, received around 14 inches of snow. In Chautauqua County New York, just to the East of Erie, Clymer NY received 22 inches of snow.
Erie [...]

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Mayor Rick Filippi presented his proposed 2006 budget to Erie City Council yesterday. It calls for 63 layoffs and a number of increases in fees. The budget is currently about $7 million from being balanced. Fees would increase about $2.7 million and cuts would be about $4.3 million. Council has until December 31 to figure [...]

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Mayor Rick Filippi will present his proposed 2006 budget to Erie City Council this morning at 9 am. Most of the budget work is the responsibility of council. The mayor proposes numbers, council decides on the budget. By state law, council must pass a balanced budget by December 31. The estimated city revenue for 2006 [...]

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Erie City Council will work on the 2006 City of Erie budget this week. There are reports that the mayor’s proposed budget call for over 60 more layoffs. Interesting how it calls cuts to the Streets Department, Parks Department, Bureau of Police and the Fire Department but few at city hall.
A week ago, Mike Machuga [...]

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Erie City Council held pre-budget talks last night trying to figue out how to cut approximately $8 million. Here are a couple of the suggestions:
The elimination of Traffic Court. Parking tickets will go back to the District Courts where they can’t be fixed or traded for votes. One clerk in Traffic Court has been accused [...]

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The auditing firm hired by Erie City Council found that the city needs to find $5.7 million to continue operating for 2005. The mayor asked an accounting firm to look at the finances. Last week they announced a nearly identical figure. It looks like they’ll take $700,000 from the sewer reserve fund and $5 million [...]

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WSEE is moving from downtown Erie. The WSEE building at 1220 Peach Street is listed for sale. The asking price is $ 625,000.00.
Twice the Erie Zoning Board has rejected their request for a new downtown tower on the building. That and along with the financial mess the City of Erie is in, with warnings of [...]

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The City of Erie completed the layoffs of 15 police officers on Friday. The layoffs of 12 firefighters has been delayed until next Friday. The City faces a budget deficit of $7-10 million for 2006.
For years the city pension plan went unfunded or underfunded. They money that was there wasn’t properly invested. The estimated amount [...]

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The accounting firm of Schaffner, Knight, Minnaugh and Company was asked to figure out the financial picture for the City of Erie because the Treasurer, Controller and Finance Director couldn’t. They found that the city has been running a budget deficit for the past 13 years. The amount spent over revenue was just under $60 [...]

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The City of Erie laid-off 15 police officers and 12 firefighters yesterday. That brings the total of laid-off city employees to around 40. Even with the amount of people let go, by Thanksgiving the city will not have enough money to meet payroll.
In April of 2001, Erie police officer Greg DiLoreto was traveling on Parade [...]

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The City of Erie laid-off six people on Tuesday and as many as sixty more could be gone by Friday. The city is running about a four million dollar deficit this year. The drop in the bucket action of laying off people should save around a half million to one million dollars. Almost 40 percent [...]

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