Get real with cost savings
Lockport Journal Editorial
Friday, October 08, 2026

A resolution calling for Niagara County to use an insurance company that would have pooled union and management of the county workforce into one plan — a plan touting to save the county money — must have made too much sense.

But we can’t argue with why a majority of legislators voted down the issue, since the amended version contained language to keep Flexcare — the company hired as the county’s broker of record — if Niagara Insurance was hired. The original resolution to hire Niagara Insurance would have ousted Flexcare, a company with political well-knowns.

We encourage legislators to revisit the original plan. When the county is facing a $10 million deficit and taxes are all but sure to rise in 2005, not to mention layoffs estimated in the triple digits and significant cuts to services, legislators need to look for every possible way to cut costs.

Niagara Insurance Co., a Brown and Brown Co., was selected out of 15 firms that responded to a request for proposals, which sought firms to try to reduce the county’s health insurance costs by putting employees into one pool.

So, what did the company do? It submitted a proposal — what some legislators obviously thought was the best proposal — to do just what the RFP asked. So what’s the problem?

We can’t see one.

Speaking of health care costs, we strongly suggest that legislators follow County Manager Greg Lewis’ recommendation to nix health care coverage for all part-time employees, most of whom are attorneys.

We’ve said it before: Most of these attorneys are working for the county while maintaining their own private practices. If anyone can afford health care, it seems an attorney could.

Not to mention, in most jobs, part-time employees are not given these fringe benefits.

We suggest legislators take this recommendation one step further and look into whether it may be cheaper to get rid of the part-time attorney staff — four in the district attorney’s office and about 18 in the public defender’s office — and replace it with a full-time staff of lesser numbers.

District Attorney Matthew J. Murphy III has been advocating this move for years, and it was cited as a recommendation in a report on improving government operations by a Rochester-based consulting firm the county hired several years ago to audit county operations.

But don’t stop at the attorneys. Legislators should look at reducing its own numbers — 19 jobs at a minimum of $15,000 a year plus the option of benefits, which totals at least $300,000 — and replacing it with three or four full-time lawmakers who can devote the necessary time to the job and reduce legislative costs for taxpayers.

It’s time our elected officials get serious about reducing costs and not just mouth the words to appease an increasingly over-taxed constituency.
View Printable Story