Erie County Executive Joel A. Giambra expects the county government will pull $12 million more from taxpayers next year, chiefly from those property owners whose assessments have gone up.

The tax rate would remain the same. The extra revenue would come from the climbing tax assessments of some properties and new construction added to the tax rolls.

Still, all taxpayers have not yet escaped an across-the-board increase.

Comptroller Mark C. Poloncarz said Tuesday that Giambra might lack the money he needs to support next year’s spending. That’s because the state-appointed control board has entangled a prized source of income, the millions that will come from the sale of tax liens.

If government officials can’t sort out the technical questions, they will need $6 million more from taxpayers. The roughly 3 percent tax hike would add $15 a year to the tax bill on a $100,000 home.

Giambra’s budget director, James M. Hartman, agrees with Poloncarz.

“Depending upon how events unfold in the next few weeks,” he told the Legislature, “we still may need to propose a property tax rate increase by the time the executive budget is submitted Oct. 15.”

Erie County leaders are entering another budget cycle in a squabble with the control board, and so far there has been no sit-down to sort it all out. It should be no surprise, then, that 61 percent of the people surveyed in a Buffalo News-WGRZ-TV poll say Erie County is headed in the wrong direction.

The County Charter required Giambra to estimate next year’s revenues by Oct. 1 (Monday), so that Poloncarz could assess them for the Legislature.

Giambra and Hartman said that without changing the tax rate, they foresee property owners providing $211.8 million for the government and the libraries next year, up from this year’s $200 million.

The sales tax rate would remain the same. Budget-makers figure the rate of 8.75 percent will raise $380.1 million next year, or 2.5 percent more than budgeted this year.

Like other county leaders, Poloncarz sees huge problems in the stateappointed control board’s agreement to let government officials sell tax liens — a way to bring in money from a third party when property owners don’t pay their taxes.

The board agreed to let an outside company buy the right to collect and keep overdue property tax payments plus penalties, but it complicated the sale to make it almost unworkable, Poloncarz said.

“We can’t get anything done under this resolution,” he told the Legislature’s Finance and Management Committee on Tuesday, explaining that the strings attached by the control board create a “chicken or egg” dilemma.

The control board said any extra revenue from the tax lien sale must be spent this year on planned capital projects — not poured into a reserve fund.

The control board said the county must then lessen the amount, dollar for dollar, that officials had expected to borrow for capital projects next month.

Finally, the control board said that when it comes time to borrow the money for capital projects, it will handle the loan, not Poloncarz, because control board members feel they can borrow money more cheaply.

But how much money will be derived from the tax lien sale? This year’s final payment from the outside company, Xspand of Morristown, N.J., won’t arrive until December, too late to calculate and secure a loan for capital projects in 2007, Poloncarz said.

Control board officials, such as Executive Director Kenneth Vetter, have downplayed Poloncarz’s concerns. Decisions can be made from forecasts, he said. In fact, that happens all the time. But Poloncarz said he’s unwilling to “guesstimate.”

Here’s why he calls it a “chicken or egg” dilemma: The control board cannot borrow until it’s asked to do so by the Legislature. The Legislature isn’t inclined to ask until it knows how much to ask for and knows for sure the control board can borrow more cheaply. And until the Legislature asks, the tax lien sale can’t proceed. Until the tax lien sale proceeds, the county won’t get the cash.

Poloncarz says if the government can’t pull off a deal with Xspand this year, then it should no longer bank on a deal with Xspand next year either. So he’s worried about the 2008 budget and how the government closes out 2007.

Legislators are crying foul, too. They’ve been talking about selling tax liens for most of the year, but as a way to rebuild the government’s reserve fund, not to finance capital projects. Credit-rating agencies are concerned about the county’s paltry reserve fund — its rainy-day fund. They haven’t made an issue out of its debt.

mspina@buffnews.com