Election Day Erie County voters will decide whether or not to reduce the size of the county legislature from 15 members to 11. But some Buffalo leaders fear it will disrupt county services. YNN’s Nicki Mayo reports.

  To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.

Then come back here and refresh the page.

"The needs that exist within county government in our rural and suburban communities are great. The needs are greater within the City of Buffalo," said Miller-Williams.

Miller-Williams said legislators currently serve 60,000 to 64,000 residents and that number could rise to 85,000 to 90,000 people per district.

"The number will increase. We won’t get additional staff. We won’t get additional funding. But we will have additional responsibility to serve the constituents," she said.

"It’s really a political move devised by someone else in some other region who does not understand the impact of county services amongst poor people in urban cores," added Miller-Williams.

Some Buffalo east side community leaders said the city is densely populated and needs to maintain it ethic minority representation.

Downsizing Advocate Kevin Gaughan said he agrees with this and has a plan to maintain representation, while reducing the number of legislators.

Gaughan said the average size of a county legislature in America is nine people, "As a result all of those communities have substantially lower taxes and less bickering."

Gaughan said Western New York has the highest concentration of government and politicians in the country and that leads to the high sales and property taxes.

He said downsizing will reduce county spending at a time when residents are stretched to the limit.

"It’s less expensive, which is more fair. It has equal if not more proportional representation for the city of Buffalo residents," Gaughan added.