8 hours Ago
BUFFALO, N.Y. — For weeks, State Senator Sean Ryan has been critical of acting Mayor Scanlon's $622 million recommended budget for 2025-2026.
The senator has regularly, even as recently as April 24, said that the budget is filled with "gimmick after gimmick." Ryan is referring to Scanlon's plan to sell city-owned parking ramps, establish a 3% hotel bed tax, and increase property taxes by 8%. RELATED: Poloncarz advises Buffalo budget gap could ‘significantly’ exceed $70M When pressed about what he would do to increase revenues, Ryan has deferred to the notion that "you can't come up with a layoff plan unless you know how big your deficit is.
" But Sunday morning, the candidate for mayor and representative from the 62nd Senate District announced a bold piece of legislation he is introducing. "I'm introducing legislation to allow the buffalo control board to issue deficit finance bonds," Ryan said. "This is a financial tool commonly used by municipalities to cover budget shortfalls.
" Ryan says that giving the Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority the ability to issue debt-financing bonds could cover the current budget gap, and the projected budget gaps for the next four years. "My plan would give the city of Buffalo some breathing room that it needs to bring long term stability back the city's finances," Ryan said. "The acting mayor has threatened to raise property taxes by as much as 30% or drastically cut city services this year.
" During a Common Council meeting focused on the budget two weeks ago, acting Mayor Scanlon was asked by majority leader Leah Halton-Pope how much of an increase to taxes, on top of the proposed 8%, would occur if the state legislature did not approve the parking authority or bed tax proposal. "If we wanted to keep the same budget and we don't have either one of those tools, you're talking about an additional 20 to 30%," Scanlon said on April 17. Scanlon later clarified that a 30% property tax would occur, only if they maintained the current spending plan.
"Obviously that would not be the case," Scanlon said a few days later. Ryan his plan gives the acting mayor and Common Council the certainty from the state that they have asked for. "He says the only way to get out of this is for the state legislature to give the city tools to close its budget gap, so I'm here today giving them a responsible tool to close their budget gap," Ryan said.
Acting Mayor Scanlon thinks otherwise. "I'm kind of blown away by it," Scanlon said on Sunday. "I hear from the State Senator and others all the time about some of the creative proposals we've come up to rectify the budget is gimmicky, and one-time infusions of cash, and then the senator turns around and wants to go out and borrow more money and incur more interest and more cost associated with it.
" "If I'm being honest, I think it's laughable," Scanlon said. Scanlon maintains that he's optimistic that his parking authority and bed tax proposals would go along way in fixing the city's financial problems, and he rebuffs the idea that he's a continuation of the Brown Administration. "The senator and others try and pin me as the status quo, we are doing anything but that," Scanlon said.
"They are people who want to do things the same old way, like going on just borrowing money, which, at the end of the day, you're going to wind up in the exact same spot." Ryan says his plan to allow the control board to issue these bonds would allow the city to get on a solid footing for the next four years. "You then bond an appropriate amount of money that would be paid over 20 years, and during that period, you work with your expenses, your revenues come up, and that's how you get back on sound, long term financial footing," Ryan said.
As for Scanlon's proposals, sources tell 2 On Your Side that the parking authority measure and hotel bed tax currently appear in the latest version of the state budget. Gov. Kathy Hochul and legislative leaders have indicated a final deal is near completion.
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