Some facts, observations, and heard-on-the-streets

We are heading into the final stretch before Primary Election Day 2025.  There are also a few things happening on the national scene that could have a major impact on state and local governments.

Here are some facts, observations, and heard-on-the-streets concerning federal, state, and local government and politics:

• The Republican majority in the House of Representatives recently enacted their “big, beautiful bill” which is designed to make the rich much richer.  Minor to no benefits for most others.
• The bill will, among other things, makes hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid, taking away health coverage for millions of Americans; produces residual damage to Medicare because the bill increases the national debt by more than $3 trillion; and takes away SNAP nutrition benefits from children and adults.
• The bill will eliminate all sorts of federal funding for such things as senior meals and food banks; aid for education; and programs for kids and seniors.
• On a local level it will ratify Elon Musk’s chainsaw cuts large and small from the things like the $15 million clean energy project in Medina to smaller things like cuts to local communities for senior services.  A resolution proposed at a recent Hamburg Town Board meeting objecting to such cuts was modified by Republicans on the Board to simply honoring Older Americans Month.
• Western New York members of the House Claudia Tenney and Nick Langworthy enthusiastically endorsed all of these actions as part of Republican efforts to eliminate “waste, fraud, and abuse.”
• The new state budget mostly avoided dealing directly with possible federal cuts that may wreak havoc on that budget.  The budget may need to be revised later in the year.  State budget problems usually have a way of trickling down to local governments and school districts.
• The state Legislature will be wrapping up its 2025 session on June 12.  It appears that no major issues will be taken up before then.
• Erie County faces some major program and financial decisions as it considers options for reorganizing correctional operations.  The costs for centralizing services in Alden exceed $400 million.  Operating procedures will be incredibly complicated and will be drastically changed under the plan recently released.  A major part of the costs will be ameliorated by reductions in annual operating expenses.  It is not something that the public will cheer but involves some basic state-mandated services that cannot be ignored.
• Sheriff John Garcia is asking for two new positions in his department to handle “transparency” issues.  That’s one way to address such pesky things as Freedom of Information Law requests.  Many such requests are simply stalled or denied, so why the extra staff?  If he is interested in improving the transparency in his office the Sheriff might want to explain when he first learned about D.J. Granville’s vehicle accidents and why he (the Sheriff) took no disciplinary action earlier, like in April 2024 when it all took place.
• The approved 2025-2026 Buffalo budget is structurally unbalanced, meaning that operating revenues and operating expenses do not match.  That is one of the criteria in the state Public Authorities Law for having the Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority (BFSA) move from an advisory to a control period.  The Authority is short a chairman and two other members.
• The city administration is looking to sell $30 million in deficit financing bonds to deal with any major delays or problems in getting their new Parking Authority up and running.  The BFSA could do such financing at a lower rate.
• The TV ad war between Chris Scanlon and Sean Ryan is in full gear with early voting starting in just eleven days.  The ads will play a part in determining who the next mayor will be but the most critical element for the mayoral candidates will be how large and effective their ground game is, identifying favorable voters and getting them to the polls.
• WIVB-TV will host a mayoral debate and town hall type forum this evening starting at 7 pm.  Kudos to the station for setting up the program.  The unavoidable problem is that having five candidates on the stage will make it hard for anyone to distinguish themselves from the others.
• The way things are shaping up there will also be a five-candidate field for mayor in November.  Scanlon and Garnell Whitfield have filed independent petitions.  Michael Gainer also submitted independent petitions.  Sean Ryan has the Working Families Party line.  Republican James Gardner will also be a candidate.
• The Republican primary for Amherst supervisor has the two candidates actively engaged.  One of them, Dennis Hoban, has outfitted a pickup truck with his signs, parking it in various locations on Main Street in Williamsville.  One day he scored a parking spot right in front of D’Avolio, a restaurant owned by his opponent Dan Gagliardo.
• Hoban has the Conservative Party endorsement, guaranteeing him a spot on the November ballot even if he loses the Republican primary.
• The New York Times’ The Athletic yesterday had an extensive report on the Buffalo Sabres’ playoff drought, including a particularly negative review of the work of General Manager Kevyn Adams.  Here is a link to the article:  https://share.google/AhdOdOuRhn6pGACVk
• Three cheers for the three-peat NLL champion Buffalo Bandits.  Now if only the Buffalo Bills could get over that Super Bowl hump.

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