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Jan 21

2022

Eye-catching public pensions 

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Working for a public school system in New York State tends to pay well. So does being retired from one. Teachers and administrators who retired last year left with an average pension of  $73,552 annually. That was up about $2,500 from the previous year.  The figures reflect teachers and administrators who put in at least 30 years and worked outside of New York City.  Retirees from Western New York averaged $63,060. That placed WNY in the middle of the pack of nine regions around the state. Tops was Long Island, with an average pension of $94,108 per year. Pensions for[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Jan 20

2022

A lack of urgency on Bills stadium

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There’s been talk lately from the Buffalo Bills and government officials that time is running out to decide on a new stadium for the team.  It’s worth noting, however, that a committee was put together at Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s behest to consider stadium options – eight years ago.  It only met once. Eight years ago. The group wasn’t lacking in clout. Notable New Stadium Working Group members included U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz, LP Ciminelli Chairman Louis Ciminelli, Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy, Empire State Development Corp. President Kenneth Adams and Kathy Hochul,[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Jan 19

2022

Enck: Test for “forever chemicals”

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A former top EPA official is calling for the monitoring of members of Buffalo’s Burmese community because of their consumption of fish contaminated with so-called “forever chemicals.” Judith Enck is responding to an Investigative Post story published in September. The story, ‘More Danger Lurking in the Water,” covered a state and federal study of fishermen who eat their local catches.  All of the fishermen tested had elevated levels of the toxin known as PFOS, one in a class of chemicals known as PFAS, but the highest were found in Burmese citizens, who make up one of Western New York’s largest immigrant[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Jan 17

2022

The hidden costs of housing the Bills

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There was a time when Erie County made money from Buffalo Bills games in Orchard Park.  From the opening of the football stadium in 1973 through 1997, the county collected millions of dollars from parking, concessions and the sale of stadium naming rights. No more.  Erie County in 1998 made major concessions that gave all the revenue from parking, concessions and naming rights to the Bills.  The county and New York State also agreed to take on a host of expenses previously covered by the Bills, ranging from stadium maintenance to the cost of ushers and ticket takers. The bottom[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Jan 17

2022

Ortt’s failing environmental report card

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Few in the state Legislature protect the environment as poorly as Senate Minority Leader Robert Ortt, according to one leading ecological advocacy group. Environmental Advocates Action gave Ortt its 2021 “Oil Slick Award” for his voting record. The group, a lobbying and advocacy outfit, annually “honors” officials whose positions they deem most harmful.   According to Peter Iwanowicz, executive director of Environmental Advocates NY, Ortt’s “extreme anti-environmental voting record should make him an outcast, not the Senate minority leader.” Ortt, R-North Tonawanda, refused an interview, but his spokesman, Andrew Dugan, told Investigative Post that the minority leader supports “sensible” policy positions.[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Jan 14

2022

Board of Elections fail transparency test

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When a good government group decided to test whether county election boards comply with the state’s open government laws, the first hurdle was getting someone – anyone – at those boards to answer an email or a phone call. It wasn’t easy. Last summer the New York Coalition for Open Government — a group that tracks government agencies’ compliance with freedom of information and open meetings laws — emailed 17 county election boards across the state to ask how often commissioners held meetings, whether those meetings were publicized, and whether meeting agendas and meetings were posted online. In many cases[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Jan 13

2022

Kennedy proposes OTB reforms

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A series of legislative proposals announced Thursday by State Sen. Tim Kennedy are an effort to correct what he called “perverse dysfunction” at Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. Kennedy proposes three bills in response to an audit by the Office of the State Comptroller, he said. The audit criticized OTB leadership for a bevy of issues, including managers and board members improperly taking tickets to luxury suites at sporting and music events at Highmark Stadium and Keybank Center.  “There has been perverse dysfunction happening at the OTB and it needs to be addressed,” Kennedy told Investigative Post. The government-run, Western[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Jan 11

2022

Buffalo schools failing the test

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So what does a school district do when many of its underachieving students miss a year’s worth of instruction due to the pandemic? If you’re Buffalo schools, you promote almost all of them to the next grade. In doing so, the district pledged programming to help students catch up. But halfway through the school year, that effort is hamstrung, mostly by problems related to the pandemic. As parent leader Sam Radford told us: “Our children who are already the furthest behind … they’re falling further behind.”

Posted 3 years ago
Investigative Post