BUFFALO, N.Y. — Last month, Buffalo City Comptroller and former mayoral candidate Mark Schroeder issued a warning about how the city budgets. On Thursday, blogger Ken Kruly, a former Erie County budget director, called Schroeder's report convincing.

"It's not as if we're unaware that we're going through some difficult times. That being said, I don't think there's a reason to panic," Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority Director Fred Floss said.

The crux of the argument is the city continues to overestimate revenues and underestimate expenses which could lead to the city starting with a budget deficit instead of a surplus for the first time in years. Kruly wrote that the Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority, also known as the control board, needs to step up.

"Ken Kruly's comments are legitimate. You need to have plans in place now before the crisis starts and that's what the control board is doing," Floss said.

However, Floss does not believe the city budget is close to triggering a so-called "hard" control board again. The state created the board in 2003 but it has served in an advisory function for the past six years.

"I think overall we've moved in the right direction. We've got a lot of the labor unions now under contracts. We're starting to hire people who have appropriate salaries," he said.

Floss said the city is already very receptive to the board's recommendations, many of which he believes will alleviate the comptroller's concerns.

"The control board is trying to balance the need for providing services and allowing the city to grow so that their tax base will grow," he said.

Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown has repeatedly defended his budgets and brushed off the comptroller's criticisms.

"We take the city's financial circumstances very seriously," Brown said. "I feel very good about all of the budgets that we've prepared. I feel good about this current budget and the growth, the development, the progress that's taking place in this city will continue."

Floss said there are some things he believes the city can be doing better, including more shared services with the county. He also said while the city has recently held the line on property taxes, in part because of constitutional restrictions, it may want to begin looking at whether a tax hike makes sense and how to implement it so homeowners can afford it.