Categories for News

Dec 3

2024

Buffalo’s ‘power structure is the problem’

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Government policies pushed by the region’s traditional power brokers — real estate developers, bankers, law firms and other business interests — have been “a disaster for the people of Buffalo,” a new report concludes.  Tax abatements and subsidies are contributing to “a deepening commercial real estate crisis” downtown, according to the report, released last month by Our City Action Buffalo, a progressive community advocacy group that is a frequent critic of the city’s elected officials.  Opposition to affordable housing projects has exacerbated the city’s poverty problems, according to the report.  What’s more, Buffalo is staring at a fiscal crisis engendered[...]

Posted 4 months ago

Nov 27

2024

Overtime for Buffalo’s city employees through the roof

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Despite the city’s worsening finances, Buffalo’s public employees — mostly cops and firefighters — are racking up overtime pay like never before. Last fiscal year, no fewer than 26 employees earned more than $100,000 in overtime. Another 270 pocketed over $50,000 in overtime, while 400 more took home at least $20,000. The result: a $22 million hole in the city budget that wrapped up in June. Those figures come from a report issued last week by Buffalo Comptroller Barbara Miller-Williams, whose staff reviewed five years of payroll records to document the burgeoning cost of overtime and its impact on the[...]

Posted 4 months ago

Nov 25

2024

A call for ‘top to bottom’ audit of OTB

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Three good-government groups have called on State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli to conduct a “top-to-bottom” audit of Western Regional Off-Track Betting. With a leadership transition newly complete, the groups — Reinvent Albany, Common Cause and the League of Women Voters — say all of OTB’s activities should be audited. They include OTB’s “revenue and expenses, procurement, investment, management systems, governance, and public transparency and accountability,” the groups said. In a letter sent Monday, the groups said “golden parachutes for departing executives, nepotistic hiring, and an outsize salary for the incoming CEO” were of particular concern. The “golden parachute” refers to $299,000[...]

Posted 4 months ago

Nov 22

2024

OTB cuts payments to local governments

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Pay raises and buyouts for executives are among the costs blamed for the Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. reducing its payments to local governments by $2.6 million this year. In 2023, OTB leaders said Thursday, the agency sent $10.25 million to the 15 counties and two cities that own it. This year, that amount decreased to $7.6 million. OTB did not specify how much the reduced payments will cost individual local governments. Erie County will be out an estimated $200,000. Officials did not fully explain the reduction Thursday, but cited personnel, legal and development costs. The drop follows a number[...]

Posted 4 months ago

Nov 21

2024

OTB hotel expansion delayed

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Hotel at Batavia Downs. Photo by Garrett Looker A planned expansion of the Batavia Downs hotel is on hold, possibly for as much as a year, officials with Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. announced Thursday. Outgoing CEO Henry Wojtaszek said the agency put the 73-room addition on pause after two estimates solicited from Buffalo-based developers came in above expectations. The pause could last six months to a year, he said. According to Wojtaszek, both The Krog Group and Ciminelli Real Estate estimated the project would cost around $16 million. Both offers were far above what the agency had hoped to[...]

Posted 4 months ago

Nov 20

2024

Lawsuit alleges housing discrimination against families

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The Elliot on Linwood Avenue, owned by Buffalo Management Group. Photo by I’Jaz Ja’ciel Fair housing advocates are suing a large apartment manager on claims they’re refusing to rent to families with children — a violation of state and federal laws. In its lawsuit, Housing Opportunities Made Equal said it sent prospective renters with children to inquire about living in apartment buildings near the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus — The Mayflower at 66 Summer St. and The Elliott at 171-175 Linwood Ave. — owned by Buffalo Management Group. The lawsuit, filed Nov. 14, contends the company ignored phone calls, screened[...]

Posted 4 months ago

Nov 19

2024

Buffalo, Rochester fail transparency test

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The cities of Buffalo and Rochester have received failing grades for a lack of transparency involving tax breaks given to the owners of old commercial buildings converted to new uses. The 485-a program is often used to retrofit office buildings into mixed uses that include housing and retail. The report by Good Jobs First found that the granting of the tax breaks is done by bureaucrats without any public review and the cities don’t readily disclose the award.  The report, however, gave high grades to the industrial development agencies in the cities of Utica, Albany and Syracuse. Transparency improves public[...]

Posted 4 months ago

Nov 14

2024

How Erie County voted for president

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The Democratic presidential ticket’s margin of victory in Erie County was provided by voters in the City of Buffalo. Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz won the county by 42,243 votes, according to the current count. She won Buffalo by 46,765, snagging more than three-quarters of the ballots cast by city voters. The Democrats also won by lesser but still substantial margins in the towns of Amherst, Tonawanda and Aurora, and squeaked out victories in Cheektowaga and Lackawanna. The rest of the county registered various shades of red, ranging from pinkish communities like Orchard Park, Hamburg and[...]

Posted 5 months ago
Investigative Post