Categories for Outrages & Insights

Apr 15

2012

Taxing questions regarding the Bills

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The key study isn’t done, and negotiations have yet to start in earnest, but it’s not too early to start posing questions about who should pay for what to keep the Bills in Buffalo. The teams’ lease on Ralph Wilson Stadium expires in July 2013 season and a story in The Buffalo News on Sunday reports that sources are saying the cost of renovating the facility will run north of $200 million. Given the cost of upgrading the home of the Green Bay Packers and Kansas City Chiefs ran $295 million and $400 million respectively, that seems like a safe,[...]

Posted 13 years ago

Apr 5

2012

Lessons for Buffalo from a boomtown

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Buffalo is not Austin, Texas, and never will be. They bake. We freeze. They have Lance Armstrong. We had OJ. They don’t pay state income taxes. We do. Oh boy, do we. But I’ve come away from two visits to Austin since last summer thinking there are lessons to be learned. The Texas capital is booming. Austin proper added some 160,000 residents between 2001 and 2010, up 20 percent. Only one major metro area grew at a faster pace. The region also added jobs at a faster rate than any major metro area in the nation over the past eight[...]

Posted 13 years ago

Mar 27

2012

Hotel discounts that cost taxpayers

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It seems local IDAs still haven’t come across a hotel subsidy deal they don’t like. The Amherst IDA in January approved $1.9 million in tax breaks for a hotel and retail shops on Main Street in Williamsville that Carl Paladino plans to develop on the former site of Stereo Advantage. On Monday, the Erie County Industrial Development Agency voted to grant $275,000 in tax breaks to  the Millennium Hotel adjacent to Walden Galleria in Cheektowaga. Benderson Development recently announced plans for a hotel in the former Donovan state office building it is redeveloping at Canalside. They’ll no doubt be asking[...]

Posted 13 years ago

Mar 26

2012

Sobering stats for Hochul

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A reader forwarded a post from the Daily Kos that lays out all sorts of interesting voting patterns in the New York’s reconfigured Congressional districts that underscore just how amazing Kathy Hochul’s victory was last year in the old 26th District and how difficult a repeat performance will be in the new 27th. Press accounts have reported the edge in Republican enrollment has inched up from 6 percent over the Democrats in the old 26th to 7 percent in the new 27th. Not all that much movement and hardly insurmountable, given that Republicans do not hold a plurality. But then[...]

Posted 13 years ago

Mar 26

2012

Handicapping a Hochul-Collins race

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There’s the matter of an almost certain GOP primary, but the announcement over the weekend by Chris Collins that he is running for the 27th Congressional District leads to inevitable speculation about a general election showdown with Kathy Hochul. Conventional wisdom holds that the Republican holds a distinct advantage because of party enrollment figures.  While precise numbers are hard to pin down, it appears enrolled Republican will outnumber Democrats by about 7 percent in a district that spans portions of eight counties. Two Republicans have announced for the seat, Collins and decorated war veteran David Bellavia of Batavia. A third[...]

Posted 13 years ago

Mar 22

2012

Same as the Old Boss

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Ossified. Webster defines it as “hardened or conventional and opposed to change.” As in government in New York State. A cursory reading of the headlines might lead one to believe that governance in New York is starting to move in the right direction since Andrew Cuomo took up residence in the governor’s mansion. The state budget got passed on time, the income tax code was revised, gay marriage was approved. Indeed, by one measure—passing major legislation and spending packages—there has been progress. Paralysis has been eased. But the manner in which many key measures have been passed underscores just how[...]

Posted 13 years ago

Mar 14

2012

NY’s political dysfunction runs deep

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When it comes right down to it, state legislators only have to do a handful of things to earn their $79,500 salaries. Pass a budget. Vote on bills and appointments. And, once every 10 years, redraw election district boundaries for the U.S. House of Representatives and the state Senate and Assembly. It appears likely that lawmakers are going to let a federal judicial panel draw the lines for Congressional seats.  They continue to haggle over the lines for Senate and Assembly seats. The standoff is a stark reminder that Albany is still dysfunctional at a basic level. Politics is the[...]

Posted 13 years ago

Mar 12

2012

Government’s spin cycle

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I’m not sure when the high water mark was regarding the public’s right to know about what’s being done in its name and with its tax dollars, but surely that time has passed. A lot gets written this time every year as the press “celebrates” Sunshine Week. The focus is often on government’s failure to live up to the spirit, if not the letter of the Freedom of Information Law. But the problem goes well beyond efforts to stonewall the press and public under the FOI Law. I’ve been a reporter for more than 30 years and over that time[...]

Posted 13 years ago
Investigative Post