Should Buffalo annex Lackawannas brownfields and annex them to success Lakeside IndPk

[Timmy]

Should Buffalo annex Lackawannas brownfields and annex them to success Lakeside Industrial Park?

[My2cents]

Buffalo has no power to annex Lackawanna property

[concernedwnyer]

Buffalo has no power to annex Lackawanna property

You have a point. This poll is not valid..... If it was valid however, I would be careful on the browns field I chose to reuse........... Steel mill no way. Those wind turbines might develop a green glowing hue over time and it will not be from all the eletricity they are producing.

[Mr. Lackawanna]

Lackawanna is fine the way it is.

Their is no garbage "Fee" in Lackawanna

Taxes in the better neighborhoods of Buffalo are to high.

[run4it]

On what planet would Lackawanna be "one of the better neighborhoods" in Buffalo?

And aren't taxes uniform throughout the city? I wasn't aware that Black Rock paid less than Parkside.

[Mr. Lackawanna]

On what planet would Lackawanna be "one of the better neighborhoods" in Buffalo?

And aren't taxes uniform throughout the city? I wasn't aware that Black Rock paid less than Parkside.

I did not say Lackawanna would be any better than any of the neighborhoods in Buffalo. I said "Taxes in the better neighborhoods of Buffalo are to high."

Taxes may have the same "tax rate" in Buffalo. In Buffalo the homes are assessed much higher in the better neighborhoods. Living in these better neighborhoods your property taxes would be greater. If Lackawanna was merged into Buffalo my overall taxes would go up.

[run4it]

So if you acknowledge that Lackawanna wouldn't be one of the better neighborhoods, why would you worry about the taxes (assessments) being too high in those neighborhoods? It would be a fairly moot point. And they're "too high" compared to what? Lackawanna? Is the tax rate in Lackawanna that much lower than Buffalo's? Or are you just griping that my house is worth more than yours? We know that the tax rates in the other suburbs are mostly quite a bit higher than Buffalo, not to mention the averaged assessment.

Speaking of which, I live in "one of the better neighborhoods" of Buffalo, and the mortgage appraiser just told me I'm getting a nice deal on my house and it's assessed value.

[leftWNYbecauseofBS]

What if the city and 1st tier towns went to a borough form of government?

You would have Buffalo - Most of the city today.
Borough 1 - South Buffalo, West Seneca and Lackawanna
Borough 2 - Cheektowaga, Depew and Sloan
Borough 3 - Amherst and Williamsville
Borough 4 - Kenmore and Tonawanda(Town and City)


Each borough would have it's own police department and school system.
The Metro city would be in charge of everything else.

You would have two tax bills. Borough taxes for schools and police and city taxes for everything else.

Each borough, including Buffalo, would have a borough manager form of government with a 4 member borough board.

The mayor of Metro Buffalo would serve all 5 boroughs and the common council would have 2 representatives for a total of 10.

Doing this would protect the two items that the burbs will always fight for, which is schools and police but consolidate everything else.

Taxes would be lowered across the board because of reduced staffing from both management and labor but mostly management.

This would put the Metro City of Buffalo at a population just under 700k and reduce COUNTLESS layers of Government. This would make Buffalo the 16th most populated city in the US defined by city proper population.

[Timmy]

Thats an interesting idea....

I just worry that a burrough form of government might look more like ostriches with their heads underground...or weasels living bellow the surface

[Mr. Lackawanna]

So if you acknowledge that Lackawanna wouldn't be one of the better neighborhoods, why would you worry about the taxes (assessments) being too high in those neighborhoods? It would be a fairly moot point. And they're "too high" compared to what? Lackawanna? Is the tax rate in Lackawanna that much lower than Buffalo's? Or are you just griping that my house is worth more than yours? We know that the tax rates in the other suburbs are mostly quite a bit higher than Buffalo, not to mention the averaged assessment.

Speaking of which, I live in "one of the better neighborhoods" of Buffalo, and the mortgage appraiser just told me I'm getting a nice deal on my house and it's assessed value.

Getting a better deal on what, are you leaving the city or getting a great deal on your next tax bill?

I did not say Lackawanna wouldn't be one of the better neighborhoods. It is just like Buffalo some good and bad neighborhoods.

When I purchased my home in Lackawanna I also looked at homes in the suburbs and in the outer ring of South Buffalo. At that time (late 60's) when I was looking for a home. I looked at house in South Buffalo which was around $32K and the taxes were around $2K. The house I purchased in Lackawanna was around $32K but the total taxes were around $550. Even in my younger days I was concerned about paying taxes.

My neighborhood in Lackawanna the 4th ward which boarders on Orchard Park would be considered one of the more costly neighborhoods in Lackawanna and be comparable to the outer ring neighborhoods of South Buffalo and West Seneca.

[Shovel ready]

What if the city and 1st tier towns went to a borough form of government?

You would have Buffalo - Most of the city today.
Borough 1 - South Buffalo, West Seneca and Lackawanna
Borough 2 - Cheektowaga, Depew and Sloan
Borough 3 - Amherst and Williamsville
Borough 4 - Kenmore and Tonawanda(Town and City)


Each borough would have it's own police department and school system.
The Metro city would be in charge of everything else.

You would have two tax bills. Borough taxes for schools and police and city taxes for everything else.

Each borough, including Buffalo, would have a borough manager form of government with a 4 member borough board.

The mayor of Metro Buffalo would serve all 5 boroughs and the common council would have 2 representatives for a total of 10.

Doing this would protect the two items that the burbs will always fight for, which is schools and police but consolidate everything else.

Taxes would be lowered across the board because of reduced staffing from both management and labor but mostly management.

This would put the Metro City of Buffalo at a population just under 700k and reduce COUNTLESS layers of Government. This would make Buffalo the 16th most populated city in the US defined by city proper population.

Great idea. This would really reduce a lot of administrative duplication and waste, while maintaining a comfortable degree of local autonomy in specific areas. It would also boost the city's population to a healthy number that would garner more clout.

Too bad no politician who knows where their bread is buttered would ever be down with dissolving their own municipality.

[leets]

Lackawanna already uses Buffalo Parks (South Park) and its fire department is heavily dependent on Buffalo for backup in what is referred to as mutual aid. Buffalo and Lackawanna share many of the same issues and both would benefit from a merger.

[leftWNYbecauseofBS]

Great idea. This would really reduce a lot of administrative duplication and waste, while maintaining a comfortable degree of local autonomy in specific areas. It would also boost the city's population to a healthy number that would garner more clout.

Too bad no politician who knows where their bread is buttered would ever be down with dissolving their own municipality.

Agree. For a regional effort to ever work Amherst would have to agree first. if they did, others would follow suit.

The challenge is Amherst was just rated the 4th safest city/town in the US with more then 75k residents. Buffalo was the 36th, or something close to that, most Dangerous city in the US. If people think Amherst is going to give up the APD for the BPD...they need to share whatever they are drinking/smoking.

[Mr. Lackawanna]

If we had a Metro form of government, I can't see it as reducing my tax load. I only can see it as a political grab for more of my tax dollars.

Would we have a Master labor contract. One for the School Teachers and their unions. One for the Fire Departments and their unions. One for the City/County workers and their unions. Last but not least one for the Police Department and their unions?

I can't see the these present city/county workers giving up any of their present pay and benefits. Lets say the Amherst Police Department was the highest paying Police Department in Eire County and Lackawanna Police Department was the lowest. What wage scale would you pay all the Police Departments to able save money with the merger?

Probably if any money was saved by the merger it would have to go to the Buffalo unions first for their back pay. Why should the Lackawanna taxpayers have to pay for the Buffalo politicians incompetence?

Would the schools be forced to be open for all students Could not a student in the inner city sue to get a better education and attend school in lets say Orchard Park?

If the new Police department could not get their way. Would I in Lackawanna be subject to a parking ticket blitz?

I'm only one voter in Lackawanna and this is some of the reasons why I would vote NO to any merger. How do you think the voters in Amherst would vote?

[Timmy]

Mr Lackawanna, it takes years and decades to merge municipalities into the county

and there is nothing stopping a municipality from merging everything except a school district or a police force or fire. It would be as simple as a special tax credit/surcharge for that service on the annual tax bill.

I think you would agree that our region would benefit if it had population statistics for the metro area putting Buffalo back in the top 25 metro areas

I think you would agree that our region would benefit from alot of the administrative jobs and services being consolidated like purchasing, accounting, auditing, benefits management, parks, etc. There really is no difference in how these jobs are functioning either in the county or a municipality.....so merging people functions and computer systems could have a huge savings.

Its the services that people interact with on a daily basis like police, fire, schools...these are things that could still retain local control if negotiated properly.