The first televised Buffalo mayoral debate is now in the books. Hosted by WIVB-TV, there were lively moments and combative ones as the candidates used the platform to highlight their vision for the city.
City Budget
Chris Scanlon, the current acting mayor, defended his budget proposal which includes the sale of four city owned parking ramps, a 3% hotel occupancy tax and an 8% property tax increase. These initiatives are all in an effort to help close the projected $70 million budget deficit.
“These are strategic initiatives that will satisfy the city of Buffalo's budget and set us on a path to fiscal solvency in the next few years,” he said during the debate.
Scanlon then further went on to attack State Senator Sean Ryan’s plan for fixing the city budget, which entails the city selling deficit bonds through the Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority.
“The gimmicks that we've heard talked about are the deficit borrowing and things like that. Borrowing $75-150-200 million to try and fix the budget?,” said Scanlon. “That's like putting your mortgage payment that you can't afford on a credit card.”
Ryan contends deficit bonds through the BFSA will come at a lower interest rate than if the city were to borrow money itself.
"The city of Buffalo is a business. It would be a $600 million business, and they would restructure. That's the only way to avoid catastrophic increases, but also to get us back on balance.”
The other four candidates all opted for the city to undergo an independent audit and then decide where to restructure city government.
Outside of Scanlon’s 8% property tax raise set for the next fiscal year, Ryan is the only other candidate to declare he will raise property taxes if elected, telling BTPM NPR in an exclusive interview.
Downtown Business
The pandemic and the repercussions brought from it has expedited a downturn of downtown Buffalo. Whitfield and Tyson-Thompson used their time to lament the new Bills stadium staying out in Orchard Park, instead of downtown Buffalo.
Tyson-Thompson accused politicians of having a “fear of speaking truth to power” in the stadium planning process. He, along with Ryan also suggested the city should look towards Toronto or Pittsburgh as a model for what a vibrant downtown should look like.
Scanlon scoffed at the notion of the new Bill stadium being a “fix all” to the city’s downtown atmosphere. Scanlon believes the long-term fix is people returning to work in offices, as well as small businesses grants, incentivizing people to open businesses downtown.
Wyatt suggested finding out the struggles of people who are currently going downtown and then making changes from there.
Kensington Expressway
This was Whitfield’s strongest part of the evening, as he was able to tout his stance of being the only candidate in the race in favor of the full restoration of Humboldt Parkway.
“[This] is the quickest way to restore the East Side of Buffalo. This is easy, and it's a shame that we have leaders who shrink away from this and make political decisions and try to be politically correct about this issue,” said Whitfield.
The other four candidates made pledges to keep state funding secured for the expressways but fell short of backing either plan of full restoration of Humboldt Parkway or a partial one with a tunnel beneath.
The Optics
Sean Ryan made sure to go on the offensive during many parts of the debate. Relentlessly going after Scanlon and his ties to the Paladino family, which drew reactions from the crowd on multiple occasions. Ryan went so far as to even call Scanlon a “cheap date” which drew sizable laughter from the crowd.
Scanlon may not have found the rebuttal amusing, appearing visibly annoyed at times during the debate and it led to an awkward moment after the debate where Scanlon did not shake Ryan’s hand, increasing audience reaction. It was unclear if this was intentional by Scanlon.
The debate being just one hour long, followed by a half-hour town hall did not leave much time for multiple rebuttals, which led to frustration from the candidates and crowd. Whitfield said it was unfair that Ryan and Scanlon basically got to dominate the microphone, a sentiment that was shared by Wyatt and Tyson-Thompson.
“I thought that there were opportunities for me to do a rebuttal,” said Whitfield. “I was denied that, but then it was given to the other so, you know, these things are not particularly fair.”
The candidates have less than one month left to prove to voters they are the right pick for Mayor of Buffalo. June 14-June 22 marks the early voting period. June 24 is primary day.
