May 5
2025
Control board asks Scanlon for a backup plan
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The Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority last week instructed Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon to produce a fallback plan should the revenue projections in his proposed budget fail to pan out.
Particularly worrisome to the control board is an estimated $26.5 million Scanlon hopes to raise in the next year by selling the city’s parking ramps. The measure requires state legislation that — as of my hitting send on this newsletter, anyway — has not been approved. Control board members were concerned, too, about how much money the city would get for the ramps, and whether the sale could be completed quickly enough to help plug the hole in this year’s spending plan.
Those are not the only income projections in Scanlon’s budget proposal that made control board uneasy. There’s the $3.4 million the administration hopes to collect by means of an occupancy tax on hotels, which also has yet to be approved by the state legislature. There are some optimistic assumptions about income from fees and fines.
Donate to support our nonprofit newsroomAll told, the board’s analysts identified nearly $43 million in projected revenues they considered “uncertain.” Over the course of Scanlon’s four-year financial plan, submitted along with his proposed budget for the upcoming year, the analysts identified $123 million in uncertain revenues. The sale of parking ramps and the bed tax account for less than half of that, at $57.1 million.
Scanlon and his finance commissioner, Ray Nosworthy, told the control board they were amenable to submitting a contingency plan — indeed, they indicated they already had discussed what they would do in the event revenue sources underperformed or failed to materialize.
The control board set a deadline of May 28. That’s two days too late to be of any use to city lawmakers, who, per the city charter, must vote on and submit any revisions to Scanlon’s budget proposal by May 26.
At a budget workshop Thursday, Common Council Majority Leader Leah Halton-Pope asked Nosworthy if the administration could submit the contingency plan early, so as to inform the Council’s deliberations.
Nosworthy said the administration would abide by the control board’s resolution.
“You can’t turn it in by the 25th? We can’t work ahead of time?” Halton-Pope said.
“It’s not very helpful to us after the fact,” Niagara District Council Member David Rivera added.
Scanlon, Gainer and Grant creating new ballot lines
Scanlon, as he said he would, is hedging his bet on winning the Democratic primary in June. The acting mayor’s campaign is circulating an independent nominating petition to create a a new ballot line — the “Good Neighbors Party” — for the November general election. He needs 1,500 signatures from city voters registered to any party, or no party, who have not already signed a nominating petition for a mayoral candidate.
The city’s firefighters union, which recently endorsed Scanlon, recently put out a call recently for volunteers to collect signatures for him. Independent nominating petitions are due to the board of elections May 27.
The name choice is ironic: Scanlon’s chief rival in the June primary, state Sen. Sean Ryan, was a member of a West Side political club called the “Good Neighbor Democrats,” which included former Assembly Member Sam Hoyt and current Niagara District Council Member David Rivera, among others.
Scanlon’s not the only candidate in the city trying to create an independent ballot line.
Business owner and activist Michael Gainer was booted from the Democratic primary for mayor last week but is collecting signatures to create the “Restore Buffalo” party line in November. Also hoping to appear on that ballot line is Betty Jean Grant, who was disqualified from the Democratic primary for the Erie County Legislature District 2 seat. The two allies are collecting signatures for one another.
Council considers new rules for speakers
There’s a rare meeting of the Common Council’s Rules Committee this week. On the docket are additions to the Council’s rules of order that would prohibit, among other things, the wearing of hats in Council chambers “unless required for medical, religious, or cultural reasons.”
The new rules would also ban “[c]lothing with political slogans, campaign content, or attire endorsing specific candidates, parties, or ballot measures.” Also banned are “signs, banners, placards, or similar materials,” unless “used as part of an official presentation or exhibit.”
Most notable, however, is a measure that would limit how many members of the public would be permitted to speak on an issue before lawmakers. The new rules would cap the number of speakers to six, with “no more than three members of the public … permitted to speak on either side of the issue being considered.”
Nathan Feist, a community activist who frequently addresses the Council, called the restrictions “dictatorial … and unconstitutional” and urged the Council to reject them.
“The limit of three speakers ‘on either side’ denies the reality that issues have more than two sides,” Feist wrote on Facebook.
“Restricting those who attend public meetings from wearing clothing deemed ‘political’ is an arbitrary infringement on First Amendment rights. Pitting members of the public against each other is inflammatory and counterproductive, and prohibiting others from speaking at a public meeting simply because they might not take a desired ideological position is illiberal and undemocratic.”
Remember who brought you George Santos …
A federal judge last week sentenced former U.S. Rep. George Santos of Long Island to 87 months in prison for wire fraud and identity theft. Santos, whose colleagues booted him from Congress in December 2023 — less than a year into his only term — was also ordered to pay $373,000 restitution and serve two years supervised release, Politico reports.
Lest we in Western New York forget, Santos election to Congress was facilitated by Big Dog Strategies, the political consulting firm run by Chris Grant — former chief of staff to another disgraced congressman-turned-convict, Chris Collins.
The Santos campaign paid Big Dog about $391,000 in 2022, the year Santos was elected, according to federal records. About two-thirds of that total was for direct mail postage, and another quarter of the money was for design and production of mailers. On top of that, the Santos campaign paid Grant’s company $6,000 a month for 10 months for “general political consulting.”
The Santos campaign also spent $45,000 on polling and nearly $1 million on media placements with firms that frequently do business with Big Dog’s clients.
What I’m reading
- The Buffalo News’s Justin Sondel reports on “proxy wars” in the race for Buffalo mayor. In sum: Supporters of state Sen. Sean Ryan will try to tie Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon to controversial developer Carl Paladino, the Republican who endorsed him early. Scanlon supporters will try to tie Ryan to controversial political activist India Walton, who Ryan endorsed after she won the Democratic primary for mayor four years ago. Experts explain why these associative campaign tactics are effective.
- WGRZ’s Nate Benson reports on the weekend war of words between Scanlon, his allies in city government and Ryan over how to close the city’s budget gaps: a) Scanlon’s proposal to sell the city’s revenue-generating parking ramps, or b) Ryan’s plan to empower the control board to borrow what the city needs to get it through the next few years. Asked why the two camps can’t work together toward a solution, both gave Benson the same answer: politics.
- Chicago in 2008 privatized its parking meters to plug a deficit. Lawmakers regret it now. Scanlon’s proposal is different, but Chicago’s experience presents a cautionary tale.
- WBFO’s Holly Kirkpatrick reports the City of Buffalo since 2020 has allocated $1.6 million for arts and anti-violence programs, but has only directed $190,000 to the groups the money is meant to support.
- Politico reports Andrew Cuomo, the former governor running for New York City mayor, failed to disclose millions in stock options in a nuclear power company for which he’s been a consultant.
- Western banks sent Russians more than $12 billion in foreign currency in early 2022, on the even of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project reports. The cash — mostly U.S. dollars, euros and Swiss francs — was flown into Moscow in crates.
