The $15 million in tobacco-settlement money that County Executive Joel A. Giambra secured to subsidize ECMC this year won't stretch far enough, so he will tell the state-appointed control board that he also must borrow $6 million to support the hospital and bolster other departments, including the Board of Elections as it readies for computerized balloting and an election to decide the State Senate seat Byron Brown vacated when he became mayor.

Giambra said Wednesday that he and his budget officials have not yet found ECMC's money for 2007, the second year of a hospital deal that extends through 2009. But Giambra's team will probably complete its strategy by Friday, when he is expected to send the Erie County Fiscal Stability Authority a report on changes to the four-year financial plan he was told to create last September, and follow.

In his new status report, Giambra will stress the importance of keeping the county's sales tax rate for the rest of the decade at 8.75 percent, the level it will hit Sunday when the latest increase takes effect. The control board will discuss Giambra's document at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Erie Community College's North Campus.

"If it doesn't stay, you are going to have to replace it with a property tax increase," Giambra said of the higher sales tax rate, explaining that Erie County must rebuild its reserves to restore its standing on Wall Street. Two agencies rate Erie County's bonds one notch above junk status, and a third rates the bonds only slightly better.

As a procedural matter, the sales tax rate of 8.75 percent is to revert to 8 cents on the dollar at the end of November 2007. But the current crop of legislators will probably be asked to renew that rate before then, because the income is counted on through 2009.

Similarly, Erie County lawmakers each year renew a sales tax penny added to fix a budget crisis in 1985. The Legislature is expected to vote in a week to renew that "temporary" 1 percent, which pulls about $120 million a year from consumers in Erie County.

The government is trying to stand upright, and let out its belt, after the budget crisis of 2005. While it must find $100 million in savings over the next four years to avoid another tax increase this decade, the elected leaders started the year by agreeing to spend more than their 2006 budget allowed.

At Giambra's request, lawmakers returned $450,000 to the Convention and Visitors Bureau, and at lawmakers' request he let them spend another $100,000 on their staff. Pending is his request to give another $800,000 to four cultural groups. All that would total an extra $1.35 million in spending, and January hasn't even ended.

That spending doesn't include the "consent decree" that the Legislature approved last week at the urging of ECMC and Giambra. The agreement ensures the government will provide a total $48 million in operating subsidies through 2009 - $22 million more than expected.

Most officials agreed the settlement served the taxpayer better than no settlement at all. A State Supreme Court judge on Dec. 30 ruled that ECMC is entitled to a county-provided subsidy, and he could have demanded payments of about $30 million a year - money the county does not have.

Still, the government does not now have the money to cover the demands of the less-costly settlement, according to an analysis by Comptroller Mark Poloncarz. The deal forces officials to turn to lenders, he says, making it more difficult for Erie County to turn over a new and more frugal leaf when it comes to borrowing money.

"People were worried about the costs to health care if there wasn't a settlement," Poloncarz said, "and that's a legitimate issue. But there also is a cost to Erie County from the settlement. And we have to budget accordingly."

County officials had vowed to borrow no more than $30 million a year for large-scale projects for the rest of this decade, when the county had been borrowing more than $80 million a year to improve roads, bridges, government buildings and other structures.

But the county must give ECMC $15 million for its long-term projects in 2007 and another $15 million in 2008. So does the county then cut back even further on its roads, bridges and buildings, or borrow more than its self-imposed cap of $30 million?

Poloncarz predicted county leaders will borrow the $15 million they must give ECMC in 2007 to bargain with its unions for concessions. Also, since county officials negotiate labor contracts, ECMC insisted the county - meaning its taxpayers - pay wage increases exceeding the level that ECMC considers appropriate for the industry.

The county and its taxpayers also must provide $1 million in 2006 and '07 for claims against the hospital and about $5 million over two years for the health benefits for certain hospital retirees.

Then there's the $6 million that Giambra says will be borrowed later this year, to help meet the ECMC operating subsidy. Giambra was briefing Poloncarz and Legislature Chairwoman Lynn M. Marinelli about his plan late Wednesday.