Joel Giambra is an American politician from the State of New York. He is the former County Executive of Erie County, New York. Early life Giambra was born in Buffalo, New York in 1957 to a single mother, Shirley. He was raised in Buffalo by his mother and his grandmother. He lived in the Lakeview Housing Project, near the east bank of the Niagara River. Giambra later said, "It was an environment where everybody was poor but we didn’t know it." His mother eventually married Salvatore "Babe" Panaro. Giambra considers Panaro to be his father. His mother and stepfather had a daughter, Angela. The family was Roman Catholic. Giambra attended Grover Cleveland High School and Erie Community College. Political career Giambra was one of the youngest Buffalo Common Council members ever,and also served as Buffalo City Comptroller early in his career. He was a Democrat who changed his political affiliation to Republican in 1999 to better position himself to run for County Executive. He was seen as a future statewide candidate and in 2002 was considered by Governor George Pataki as a running mate for lieutenant governor, before Lt. Gov. Mary Donohue was nominated for reelection. Investigations into the mismanagement of a highway garage and exorbitant prices paid for county office furniture to a Giambra campaign contributor preceded the 2005 budget problems. Then-New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer initiated a lawsuit against the furniture company for the overcharges. Some have accused Giambra of providing lucrative jobs to associates. His county staff measured 18, while Monroe County's executive had only four staffers and then downsized to three. Giambra's boyhood friend Victor Getz was particularly singled out for notice, for his salary as an executive assistant and driver to Giambra. A panel appointed by Giambra found that Giambra's and other county employees' salaries should be raised by 40%. Giambra lowered or declined to raise county taxes for years for a total of 31% lower taxes, financing his budget partly through the use of surpluses from the previous county administration and monies from the tobacco settlement. The county then had to accept either massive reductions of services or increases in taxation. Giambra said that "an end to county government as we know it" would occur without a sales tax hike, ending county libraries, snowplows and road patrols. Giambra proposed this "red budget" of $940 million which eliminated services, and after failed negotiations to