The Buffalo Common Council voted 6 to 2 to approve Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon’s $622 million city budget with suggested amendments.
The newly passed budget will have residents in the City of Buffalo seeing an 8% property tax increase starting July 1.
Scanlon's two other revenue generating initiatives were also included - the creation of a city parking authority to usher the sale of four city-owned parking ramps, and a 3% hotel occupancy tax. The initiatives are designed to help plug a projected $70 million budget deficit.
Two members voted against the plan: University District representative, Rasheed Wyatt, and Niagara District representative, David Rivera. Wyatt cited the administration’s property tax bump as one of the reasons he voted in the negative.
“We continue to put the burden on the taxpayer. These other things, these little tricks we've done in the past have not worked, and we continue to do the same things like it's going to change. It's not going to change, its going to be the same old stuff," he said.
Rivera voted against the budget because "we can do better," and urged the council and administration to look at all options to save money, including "right-sizing" city hall.
"It's time for this council to push back against this administration and say 'hey, we can't continue down this path. It's not sustainable. We can't put it on the backs of taxpayers and cut services.' Everything has to be on the table including the consolidation of positions," Rivera said.
Though she voted to approve the budget, Councilmember Zeneta Everhart apologized to city residents and said the council had “failed” them due to having to lean on them to balance the books.
But Scanlon touted his first budget as a success.
"This budget is something I'm extremely proud of," he said after the council meeting. "This budget addresses our immediate needs, protects essential services and lays a foundation for long-term financial stability."
He emphasized the budget passed without "a single layoff," and pushed back against Everhart's claim.
"I don't think this budget has failed the residents of the City of Buffalo. I think this was a very responsible budget, where we have cut $30 million immediately from a $70 million structural deficit. Gotten creative to bring in additional revenues that don't cost city taxpayers $1. Of course, there's a tax increase associated, but when you break it down to what it costs a month, it's very minimal," he said.
Overtime Spending
Curbing overtime spending for the Police ad Fire Departments dominated the first half of the discussion, with the council reducing the administration's proposed overtime budget for both departments, but not by much.
The administration proposed a $10.75 million budget for police overtime which the council reduced by $200,000 in the approved budget. That's in tandem with reducing the Fire Department's overtime budget by $800,000 by approving $6.75 million for those costs, rather than the original $7.55 million proposed by Scanlon's administration.
Wyatt wanted to go further and make "deeper cuts" to those budget lines. He attempted to introduce his own proposal to discuss those cuts in the council meeting as a "late file", but nobody on the council seconded his move. Majority Leader Leah Halton-Pope agreed that overtime spending needed to be "dealt with" further in future, and said she would be open to exploring whether the council could introduce mechanisms to do so.
However, Scanlon pointed out the city has contracts with both the police and fire unions that mandate minimum staffing levels. He added that some "managerial rights" do exist to help curb overtime hours.
"You can't simply look at the dollar amount. You have to look at the number of hours worked," Scanlon said. "The number of hours worked is trending downward, but because of contractual salary increases, the number, unfortunately, goes up."
What amendments did the council make?
The council put forward recommendations as listed in a council press release. These are not amendments in the form of legislation at this stage.
- Establishing a property tax circuit breaker for low-income residents.
This program would provide "targeted" relief to households whose property tax obligations exceed a "reasonable percentage" of their income. However, the council did not specify that percentage. Halton-Pope acknowledged that the program would need state legislation to happen, and so would not be in place for the upcoming fiscal year when that 8% property tax increase comes into effect. - Curbing "excessive" overtime spending across departments
- Requiring reimbursement for large-scale event-related public safety costs
- Grants-in-aid (GIA) funding for cultural and anti-violence initiatives
The council seeks to "restore" support for frontline arts programs that were cut from the city's American Rescue Plan spending in December. They also request that the budgeted $400,000 earmarked for arts and anti-violence groups be spent. BTPM NPR's previous reporting found that only a small percentage of the budgeted amount is dispersed each year. - Council representation on the Buffalo Parking Authority
In terms of immediate amendments, the council tweaked a few budget lines and shifted some money around. As well as the cuts to the fire and police overtime, they cut $40,000 for a traffic engineering vehicle and added $40,000 to road improvements instead.
The $129,000 salary for a Director of Open Data position was slashed completely, with the council adding $87,729 for a Director of Data Management and bumping the salary of a Chief Information Security Officer by $12,314. Other position increases include $15,676 more for the Deputy Commissioner of Management Information Systems and a $3,815 bump for a GIS Specialist position.
