Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon and Senator Sean Ryan are really mixing it up about competing plans to resolve the city’s impending financial crisis. As it turns out both plans involve borrowing money.
Scanlon has proposed selling the city’s parking ramps for cash to help fill the city’s budget holes. The plan is not very well defined. The projected proceeds to the city from the sale have ranged from $40 million to $60 million with the city most recently, without any financial backup, setting the number at $42.2 million. If the Parking Authority is authorized by the state Legislature and Governor Kathy Hochul it would be many months before the public would see the Authority set up; preparation are made for the property sale; the Authority is able to borrow the money; and finally money is sent to the city. What could go wrong?
The city administration is saying that they will only use $26.5 million of the proceeds in the 2025-2026 budget but that seems unlikely. Scanlon’s budget underfunds the Police and Fire Departments overtime accounts by $15 million or more. Projected costs for other expenses such as medical insurance and retirement systems are also low. There are several revenue accounts that are significantly overestimated. It is likely, therefore, that the city will need every dollar of the suggested Parking Authority payments for use during the upcoming fiscal year to fill budget holes, leaving nothing for the outyears. The one-shot revenue would be gone. What would they propose to sell in the following years?
Ryan has proposed that the Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority be authorized by the state to sell up to $150 million in deficit bonds to help get the city through the crisis while it looks for realistic revenue opportunities and options for spending reductions to get the city to a structurally balanced budget. The budgets over the next four or more years would need to include repayment of the deficit financing.
Scanlon, City Comptroller Barbara Miller-Williams, and Council Majority Leader Leah Halton-Pope have criticized Ryan’s proposal. Last fall the Council approved Scanlon’s record $110 million borrowing plan for capital projects; Miller-Williams opposed that action.
Deficit financing is not something new for the city. It was done just five years ago. The city’s 2019-2020 budget was short of money so the city in June 2020 sold $25 million in deficit bonds. As a member of the Council Scanlon voted for that deficit financing. To see how Buffalo’s fiscal history tends to repeat itself I refer you to a May 2021 post on this blog: Buffalo’s kick-the-can-down-the-road 2021-2022 budget | Politics and Other Stuff
Among the other mayoral candidates Garnell Whitfield has made some general comments about what he might do about the city’s crisis. Councilman Rasheed Wyatt and Anthony Tyson Thompson have offered no particular budget balancing suggestions.
Michael Gainer, who has been ruled off the Democratic primary ballot, is circulating petitions to be an independent candidate in November. Gainer has proposed that Governor Kathy Hochul fill out the Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority vacancies, “assembling a team of professionals that can assist City staff in making a plan for financial security.”
Republican candidate James Gardner (is he or is he not a placeholder for another candidate?) suggested on WBEN’s Hardline show on Sunday that the city cut about $30 million in spending to get it closer to what it was spending two years ago. We will anxiously await the details of those plans.
There is no word yet on how the Common Council will approach the budget.
It is very hard to deal with the impending financial crisis at the same time that a heated election is being conducted for mayor. That doesn’t absolve all the players from working to figure it out.
O, Canada
That was a pretty interesting election across the border, eh!
Donald Trump certainly worked his magic in transforming the nearly moribund Canadian Liberal Party into a powerhouse. Will Ottawa now propose adding 50 provinces just south of the border?
Trump’s tariff policies have substantially damaged relations with our neighbor across the bridges. Tariffs involving the auto industry will substantially hurt the local economy but so will a big drop in shopping, dining, and entertainment dollars from Canadians who have always felt comfortable coming over for a visit to downtown Buffalo and our shopping plazas. Year-to-year border crossings were down 17 percent in March. Farther away, many Canadians are skipping their trips to vacation spots in Florida and elsewhere.
The residents of Western New York know Canada pretty well. We think nothing about a short drive across the Peace Bridge to visit a Chinese restaurant or a little trip to Toronto to see a show or a Blue Jays game. It is not as simple as it once was when the crossing was just a short stop to ask citizenship and if you had anything to declare, but even recently it is not that complicated for most folks.
Republican members of Congress Nick Langworthy and Claudia Tenney have been very quiet about the trouble that Trump has created in our relationship with Canada. Significant and long-term damage is being done to America’s best international neighbor and ally.
For a detailed look at what Langworthy and Tenney have been doing and not doing, I recommend that you take a look at Joseph Zambon’s website: https://westernnypolitics.com
Bluesky @kenkruly
Twitter/X @kenkruly
Threads kenkruly
