Poloncarz addresses investments made for Erie County over the last few years

"My goal is to explain what we are doing in county government and hear from the public about the services we provide."

Lancaster, N.Y. (WBEN) - On Tuesday Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz addressed the Town of Lancaster to discuss some of the investments made in Lancaster and the rest of Erie County.

One of the issues discussed during the town hall was the lack of affordable housing in Erie County. Poloncarz plans to use American Rescue Plan Funds to help build more houses and make homes easier to afford.

"These will be sold, the county will do subsidy... and then we will take the money that we get back and we reinvest it and build more homes." Poloncarz said.

Poloncarz added that the owners will not be able to flip the housing for a bigger price, allowing people to live in a home for a cheaper price. Another issue that was addressed was the lack of Canadians crossing the border into the United States.

Poloncarz said that Canadian crossings into the US have dropped up to 31 percent.

"We are seeing a drop in Canadians coming across, which is going to hurt long-term sales tax," Poloncarz said. "It's going to hurt our hotel tax."

Legislator Frank Todaro from Erie County's 8th District was also in attendance, taking issue with how Poloncarz attacked the Trump administration's cuts to Medicare.

"What the Trump administration is doing is getting rid of all the waste," Todaro said. "What Trump is doing is bringing back the value of the dollar, which we are seeing today, we're seeing the Chinese Yuan go down, the US dollar going up."