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

Ah, March.  St. Patrick’s Day is just two weeks away, marking the unofficial end of winter.

Here are some facts, observations, and heard-on-the-streets:

• Chaos and confusion reign in Washington.  The clown cabinet is primed for all sorts of damage and screwups negatively affecting millions of Americans – all for the sake of making billionaires and millionaires even richer.
• Congressman Nick Langworthy’s recent newsletter included a quick poll:  are you in favor of eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse.  No need to wait for the results: everyone responding to the poll said YES!
• Langworthy, Congresswoman Claudia Tenney, and all but one other Republican member of the House of Representatives voted to provide up to $5 trillion in tax cuts over the next ten years while cutting spending by $2 trillion.  Congressman Mike Lawler, who is seen by many Republicans as their candidate for governor next year, is also going along.
• The actual cuts have not been identified.  Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and defense spending combined add up to more than 70 percent of annual federal spending.  If the Republicans’ target in cuts is $2 trillion then those four categories of expenses will be on the chopping block.  Just last week the Musk White House announced plans to cut 7,000 employees at the Social Security Administration and close six of ten regional offices.  Watch what they do, not what they say.
• Republicans in Congress still need to pass a budget by March 14 and approve an increase in the national debt limit.  The razor-thin House majority, splintered among competing factions, is going to have a tough time with that.
• Approximately 30 percent of federal employees are veterans.  Many of them are probationary recent hires who are the first being shown to the door by President Musk.  Where’s the outrage?
• The stock market and consumer spending are down since Donald Trump took office.  Trump tariffs will add extra costs to household budgets.
• New York Lt. Governor Antonio Delgado has spent the past several months pulling away from Governor Kathy Hochul and the break is now official.  He has lost staff and duties except for the constitutional provision of presiding over meetings of the state Senate.  He might as well resign.
• Republicans in the City of Buffalo have endorsed defeated district attorney candidate James Gardner for mayor.  In the November DA race Gardner did not carry a single one of the nine councilmanic districts.  He lost citywide by an 81-to-19 percent margin.
• Gardner left County Judge Kenneth Case’s office shortly after the election and now works in the office of Conservative Party Chairman Ralph Lorigo.  Gardner told the Buffalo News that he was  always planning the job switch after the election, suggesting that the change had nothing to do with a conflict-of-interest issue concerning his work in the Judge’s office.
• Gardner spent more than one half million dollars of his own money on the DA race.  No word yet on how much he plans to spend on the new campaign.  His political consultant, Chris Grant, must be very excited.
• In last week’s post I welcomed Buffalo mayoral candidates to explain their plans for the city.  One of the candidates, Michael Gainer, responded.  Gainer has been very active in efforts involving the Kensington Expressway conversion project.  The result of citizen action is that a state Supreme Court Judge recently required the state Department of Environmental Conservation to conduct a complete Environmental Impact Statement for the project.
• Here is a link to Gainer’s campaign platform:  www.michaelgainerformayor.com/platform.  Gainer’s platform does not yet deal with actions to resolve the city’s impending financial crisis but it does provide a look at his vision for the city.
• State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli’s Office last week published a report on local government finances.  “The temporary nature of the federal stimulus funds in combination with state aid that has not kept pace with inflation, sales tax growth that has returned to lower pre-pandemic levels, and flat property tax revenue growth can put local governments closer to the edge of the fiscal cliff if not carefully managed.”  That cliff is where the City of Buffalo finds itself.  The Comptroller’s report notes that Buffalo “overrode the property tax cap this year, increased the tax levy and looked for ways to close structural budget deficits, according to news reports.”  According to news reports?
• If you are a print subscriber of the Buffalo News you are well aware of the diminished appearance of the paper over the last several weeks following a cyber-attack on the computer systems of the News’ parent company, Lee Enterprises.  They have managed to produce an abbreviated six section version of the Sunday paper, as was previously the case. Despite that, they are still “temporarily” producing a 16-page two-section paper (that’s actually just 4 large sheets of paper) Monday through Saturday.  The layout switches from day to day but they are back to presenting the death notices in alphabetical order.
• Lee Enterprises has said that they intend to make tens of millions of dollars in cuts in their various papers’ print operations over the next several months.  Lee brands themselves as being “digital-first.”  Their digital product is not very good.
• An organization that reports on the newspaper business, the Press Gazette, recently published a list of the 25 largest newspapers in the country in terms of print circulation.  The lowest on the list was the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, with a “daily average print circulation” of just 15,300.  The Buffalo News did not make the top 25, meaning that their daily circulation is lower than 15,300.  The Press Gazette’s 2023 ranking of newspapers had the News in the 20^th spot with a circulation of 38,400.
• If you are wondering where the Buffalo Sabres stand in the NHL don’t check with the Buffalo News.  The league standings disappeared with the cyber-attack.  Maybe they are just trying to be kind to the Sabres.
• In the public interest of encouraging reporting on major local news issues, I highly recommend a tax-deductible contribution to Investigative Post:  Donate – Investigative Post : Investigative Post

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