Mayor lobbies for Centennial Park

By Ron Plants

WGRZ

BUFFALO, N.Y. — In Albany it was a busy day Wednesday as state lawmakers heard from Buffalo Mayor Sean Ryan, Niagara Falls Mayor Robert Restaino, and other mayors from cities across the state.

They laid out their requests for funding and other state support to help address budget challenges and issues in their communities

Mayor Ryan says he's not asking Albany to solve all of Buffalo's problems but is seeking just enough assistance for the city to help itself deal with its serious financial problems.

Ryan told the Local Government legislature panel: "So we've been carrying for the last several years a $60 million deficit that we've able to close by taking money out of various reserve accounts, ARPA money. But right now I have zero assigned fund balance and the $60 Million dollar structural is there. This year my budget starts July 1. The budget year I'm in looks like around $50 million, plus out of balance, so we're hoping to close that by selling city assets.

"We'll probably get half of it. The other half, if we don't get an infusion of state aid, is we'll have to do long term deficit bonds, which nobody wants to do, to amortize operations cost. But that $60 million, July 1, it's back again."

Ryan is seeking state approval to restructure the city's parking authority deal to generate more revenue and permission for the city's Fiscal Stability Authority (control board) to borrow money through bonds if needed.

He also warned that future property tax increases are likely and wants broader authority to go after owners of abandoned homes and vacant lots that continue to drain city resources.

Overall, Ryan painted a stark financial picture of what lies ahead: "Our services have already been cut to the bone. There's not much left to trim. But if we don't begin to close our budget gaps the only option that we would have is to further reduce our police force and fire department and city workers. That's not something we're interested in doing."

Niagara Falls Mayor Robert Restaino also made his case for up to $200 million in state development funding. The money would help build a downtown park and events center focused on amateur and youth sports, which he says could bring new revenue to the Cataract City.

Restaino contends the request is only fair as he pointed to previous state investments in the new Bills stadium., the Micron project near Syracuse, and downtown improvements in Albany.

Of course there are many competing city government requests for state funding at this state budget time. Mayor of New York City Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday said the Big Apple could face at least a $7 billion deficit in the future.