Buffalo Comptroller Barbara Miller-Williams, late Tuesday, announced her decision to appeal a New York State Appellate Court’s ruling in an ongoing dispute with Common Councilmembers over borrowing money for capital projects.
In the most recent ruling, the Court’s Fourth Judicial Department ruled unanimously that Buffalo’s Common Council has the power, under the City Charter, to authorize the borrowing of funds.
The legal dispute stems from the comptroller’s resistance to instructions to borrow funds for the city’s 2024-2025 capital budget. Lawmakers have been instructing Miller-Williams to issue bonds for various capital projects. But Miller-Williams has insisted it’s her job to uphold fiscal responsibility and protect the city’s long-term financial stability.
As stated in a news release issued by her office, “Such borrowing highlights the negative impact of borrowing beyond the Comptroller’s established debt cap, especially when citizens and taxpayers are facing a proposed 25% property tax increase along with rising water, sewer, and user fee increases. As capital borrowing increases, so does the City’s obligations to repay that debt through increased property taxes paid for by the taxpayers of Buffalo.”
Councilmembers who initially filed legal action to force the Comptroller to borrow money for capital projects, are displeased by her decision to appeal.
One of them is Mitch Nowakowski, who suggests the higher court will likely not take on the case. He says this latest move is a procedural delay which will cost the city even more money.
"I just recently got off the phone with the Department of Public Works that after the court ruling. They were going to rebid out projects. Now they have to hold off on that," Nowakowski said. "When they were going to previously after the initial ruling bid them out, they came back at higher costs."
Miller-Williams, in her written announcement, says her office “repeatedly requested a prioritized list of shovel-ready projects” from then acting mayor Christopher Scanlon that would remain within a $28 million debt threshold, but her office did not receive one.
She also argues that existing unspent capital totaling $144,049,768 demonstrates that “additional borrowing should be approached with caution until previously allocated resources are utilized.”
Scanlon, who has since returned to the Common Council and was also one of the plaintiffs, issued a written statement Wednesday: "Yesterday, Comptroller Barbara Miller-Williams announced that she intends to once again appeal a court’s decision requiring her to perform her charter mandated responsibilities. The Comptroller, despite her claims that she is looking out for the financial well-being of the City and its residents, is extending a legal battle which has already cost the residents of our City hundreds of thousands of dollars.
"In addition, her dereliction of her duties has and will continue to cost Buffalonians tens of millions of dollars due to delays in large scale infrastructure projects. The Comptroller’s failure to act is nothing short of negligence at this point. The residents of Buffalo deserve better."
