Mayor Sean Ryan tomorrow (April 15th) will present his proposed 2026-2027 City of Buffalo budget, 107 days after taking office. The mayor has committed his administration to budgeting that is as accurate as it can be, with no gimmicks, underestimated expenses, or overestimated revenues. In other words, a budget that is substantially different from the those of years past.
Those previous budgets have mostly been a fiction, designed to make things seem better than they actually were. It is unfortunate that the public received a false sense of security about the city’s financial stability.
The new budget will require a substantial increase in property taxes. As explained in a previous post, the increased taxes are due to significant fixed costs for city services; limited options for cutting expenses; and limited alternative revenue sources to fund the city’s expenses. In other words:
Fixed costs + limited options for spending cuts + limited alternative revenues = the proposed tax increase
The size of the budget may be a bit surprising. The city’s adopted budget for 2025-2026 was $622 million, but that was not actually the total amount of spending required to provide services and pay the city’s bills for the full year. In actuality the real current budget that the city has been operating with is nearly $670 million.
As of tomorrow, the budget will officially be in the hands of the Common Council, which has until May 26 to approve or amend proposed spending. Briefings for the Council members to explain the dimensions and seriousness of the city’s financial issues began with meetings with the mayor-elect in early December.
As the Ryan administration worked to finish up the details of the budget, they were informed that the Office of the State Comptroller (OSC) will perform an expedited review of the city finances. The letter announcing the review, received on April 6th, 9 days before the release of the budget, includes a long list of information that OSC needs to do their work. Here is how WGRZ-TV News summarized the requests:
The proposed 2026-2027 budget, including the budget message, as soon as it is available.
A description of estimated revenues and appropriations in the proposed budget that have increased or decreased significantly from the estimates in the 2025-26 adopted budget.
The significant projected variances in 2025-26 operations and projected fund balance as of June 30, 2026.
Cash flow statements (if available).
Any contingencies which are probable or reasonably possible.
Salary schedules, if finalized; if not finalized, any pertinent information concerning salary negotiations, including expiration dates for current employee contracts and plans for financing possible increases.
Debt payment schedules.
Audited Financial Statements for the last five fiscal years with management letters.
Most recent trial balance – all funds.
Any other pertinent information which you feel would facilitate an understanding and evaluation of the proposed budget.
The budget calendar including public hearings, Common Council meetings, date the Common Council plans to adopt the 2026-27 budget, and the final date on which the budget must be adopted.
The requested information in many respects is the same as what will be included in the new budget and the budget message. Some of the information requests might be better directed to the city comptroller and may in fact be a review of that office’s work.
The interesting thing about the OSC review is not the information that is being asked for. The bigger question is, why has it taken so many years to raise these issues?
The city’s questionable budgeting activity dates back to at least 2012, when the Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority (aka BFSA or control board) changed from management to an advisory role. From that date forward $110 million in reserves was diminished and finally exhausted in 2018. The reserves were used as fillers in place of small and incremental property tax increases, creating the illusion of solvency, instead of holding onto reserves. The Common Council went along with that form of budgeting.
The only one who spoke up about the alarming budgets was City Comptroller Mark Schroeder. In 2019 he explained that the city budget was out of whack by nearly $50 million. His warnings were mostly ignored.
The pandemic provided the city with $330 million from the federal government. The city administration managed to spend the majority of that money as revenue fillers rather than preparing for the day when that money would run out. It did in 2025.
After Schroeder resigned from the Comptroller’s position to become the state’s Commissioner of Motor Vehicles the new Comptroller, Barbara Miller-Williams, continued to publish the documents that needed to be published. The reports were hardly noticeable. She did not choose to take a more public and vocal tone until Chris Scanlon took over as acting mayor. More forceful warnings about the city’s financial problems would have been helpful.
The Common Council’s role in budgeting is officially limited to making changes in the budgeted spending; it cannot adjust revenues. In practice the Council has annually adjusted a few budget lines but has deferred with dealing with major underbudgeted expenses such as overtime.
And then there is the city control board. They write long reports, but they have mostly been very quiet, failing to explain the depth and long-term nature of the city’s budget problems. Quiet wasn’t helpful.
The numbers that the OSC reports in their review will likely be similar to what the mayor’s budget proposes. The review might point out the twenty-year history of city budgeting, where planning was meager and easy choices were made to make budgets appear to be fiscally sound. Mayor Ryan has been reporting that information for months, even before he entered the office.
Media reporting on the developing fiscal storm over the years has been limited. Investigative Post has written extensively on the subject as has Politics and Other Stuff.
The OSC review may or may not play a role in steering the city in the right direction. Any advice, however, comes many years late. The hard work of restoring fiscal stability to the City of Buffalo begins with the new budget.
Publisher’s note
Look for another post on Thursday.
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