To the layman, there may as well be two Erie County governments. One, according to critics, lacks discipline and needs the greatly enhanced oversight of a "hard" control board.

The other is generating budget surpluses and deserves an upgrade in its Wall Street credit rating.

Those were the contrasting images Tuesday in the ongoing fight over Erie County's finances.

"None of this makes sense," County Executive Joel A. Giambra said of the conflicting messages.

Giambra and Comptroller Mark Poloncarz spent the day in New York City meeting with credit rating agencies as part of an effort to upgrade the county's rating. They were lobbying for an upgrade and pointing to an anticipated $20 million or more budget surplus this year and continued growth in the county's reserves as two signs of progress as they made the rounds in New York.

Hundreds of miles away in Buffalo, control board members met to review the county's 2007 budget and four-year plan, and they told a far different story. Their tale is of a county in need of outside oversight.

"Some of the material is just not believable," board member Joseph E. Goodell said of the two proposals. "There's no substance to it."

Goodell stopped short of predicting a "hard" board but emphasized the seriousness of the board's skepticism regarding the proposed budget and short-term plan.

Judging by Tuesday's meeting, the board seems ready to establish a control period - the legal mechanism for acquiring new powers - maybe as early as this Thursday or Friday.

When asked if a vote might come then, Goodell said, "It could."

Poloncarz, viewed by many as an independent voice in the control board debate, thinks creation of a hard board is premature, given improvements in county finances this year.

He said the credit rating agencies seem pleased with the county's fiscal outlook but were curious about the control board's desire for more power. "I told them that from the comptroller's point of view and as an attorney who represented a lot of businesses, I've seen neither a legal nor a financial reason for them to become a hard board," he said by phone from New York.

Giambra echoed those sentiments and took it a step further, suggesting the control board is playing politics with the county's finances in an effort to discredit him.

"The fact that we're in New York City pitching for an upgrade, and doing it with the support of Republicans and Democrats, is one more indication that politics is behind the move to a hard control board," he said.

Board members challenged that notion during a 90-minute meeting that focused on a laundry list of criticisms and complaints.

"We're talking about millions and millions of dollars in problems in the 2007 budget alone," said board member Kenneth C. Kruly, a former county budget director.

Kruly said he estimates that Giambra's proposed budget, which is now in the hands of legislators, is more than $20 million out of balance.

During the meeting, board members reviewed more than 25 areas of concern in the budget and four-year plan, and, with few exceptions, their comments were harsh.

"If I were county budget director right now, I couldn't sleep at night," said board member Sheila K. Kee, another former budget director.

Kruly, Kee and board member Stanley J. Keysa, all former members of the Dennis Gorski administration, offered reasons why the budget and four-year plan are troublesome.

Chief among them is the three-quarters of a penny increase in the county's sales tax and whether that tax will be extended next year. If not, the budget would have a $10 million hole in it.

"If that's missing," Keysa said, "that destabilizes the budget in a very serious fashion."

Keysa and Kruly also criticized the budget's use of borrowed money for road improvement projects while those very same projects receive state reimbursement that is then used to pay for salaries.

"That's a violation of budgeting 101," Kruly said.

They also criticized Giambra for transfering $9.5 million out of a road reserve fund that already is $7.8 million in the red.

The board is expected to meet again Thursday or Friday and, at that time, could take a vote to become a "hard" board with the power to set spending limits, freeze wages and reject contracts.

e-mail: pfairbanks@buffnews.com