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Spectator

Buffalo's financial mess: parasitic unions, self-serving politicians, crippling laws, smug suburbs

Legislating the city into poverty

For decades, Buffalo's expenses have exceeded its revenues. The primary reasons for this discrepancy are decreases in population (people to pay for services) and the increasing cost of services. I can hear assorted critical cretins of the community guffawing now and spouting "well, reduce the costs of the services, dummy!" Well, that isn't always possible because of a cute little genuflection state politicians make toward the altar of police and fire unions. Buffalo is one of those cities burdened with "binding arbitration" and if that sounds like a euphemism for uncomfortable underwear that's because it binds the hands of duly elected officials in trying to keep the cost of uniformed services reasonable and rational. The result is that some anonymous, un-elected labor mediator at Cornell decides what the city residents should pay cops and firefighters, regardless of what those residents can afford. [See "American Revolution" and "taxation without representation."]

So the state-sanctioned ballooning of Buffalo's costs routinely exceeds the ability of Buffalo residents to pay.

Not surprisingly, the highest paid city employees are police officers and firefighters. So it would make sense for those employees to reside in the city and help pay for their salaries, right? Wrong again, citizen! The state exempts cops and firefighters from living in the city that pays them. So more than half of the city's highest paid employees pay suburban property taxes, support suburban school districts, and shop in suburban establishments. That's not good for the city but again, its state-sanctioned and the city can't do anything about it.

It's everybody's public space—but it's in the city

If anyone took a drive around Buffalo, they would see a lot of government buildings, schools, churches, parks, etc. Even driving down "Mansion Row" on Delaware Avenue, one sees the glorious architectural relics of Buffalo's golden age. These mansions are today inhabited by non-profit organizations. So what does this mean to Buffalo's financial situation, you ask? It means that about 40% of the total land mass of the city is exempt from property tax - the life blood of a city's budget.

Take the same drive through Amherst and Orchard Park and Lancaster and note what you don't see.You don't see a lot of public housing - the subsistence safety net for the poorest among us. You don't see a lot of group homes for developmentally disabled folks. (Maybe that's because the enlightened elite in Williamsville once vandalized such a group home. ) All of those developments are in the city.

So what the bottom line here? Buffalo is crippled in its ability to raise enough revenue to support itself because of idiotic state laws, vast tracts of non-taxable land, and the warehousing of the poorest and neediest residents within the city limits. It is crippled in ways that the suburbs can't imagine. Buffalo faces obstacles the suburbs don't have to deal with, none of them resulting from profligacy.

Giambra v. Buffalo

Thus, for as long as the Spectator can remember, significant amounts of extraordinary state aid were needed just to keep Buffalo going. The state coughed up the money out of guilt at the restrictions it placed on the city.

So what's different now, you might ask? Joel Giambra - that's what's different. Joel Giambra started on the control board kick while city comptroller. He told the mayor that was the only way to gut the unions. But while past county executives were merely content to allow Buffalo to wither on the vine, Giambra has made it his mission to rip out the roots of Buffalo. Follow the bouncing ball, lads and ladies:
Giambra wants to kill the city, so ....
Giambra goes to Albany and tells the governor - no special aid for Buffalo, and ....
Giambra tells the governor not to give Buffalo money for the new cop contract, so ....
Buffalo heads toward default, so ....
A control board is empanelled to preside over the dismantling.

When New York City was facing insolvency, their control board got Felix Rohatyn. But in Buffalo, we get Tom Baker, a latter-day Mr. Rogers ("what I would advise the mayor to do is sit down with the county executive, preferably at a table with no edges ... "). The other control board members are even less sparkling. When faced with the utter reality that Buffalo simply cannot cut enough jobs to balance its budget and still maintain identity, the control board said "so what?" and ordered the mayor to emasculate the city even further. The board said it had no authority to coerce a sharing the $125 million + annual revenue Erie County derives from the extra penny of sales tax.

The Spectator would urge a closer review of the legislation that created the control board. That review is going to have to come from someone other than the state legislators you might expect to be representing Buffalo's interests. They won't lift a finger because the constant gerrymandering of districts has given legislators a predominance of suburban voters. So Paul Tokasz, Brian Higgins, Sam Hoyt, Byron Brown, and the rest of "the gang that couldn't legislate straight" are soiling their tiddy-whities thinking about being put on the spot about sharing the slush fund that props up Erie County. The Spectator understands that the legislation does, in fact, give the control board to ability to order a sharing of the sales tax revenue. It never will, of course, because that would negate Giambra's effort to become regional czar.

Timid Tony and his band of no-goods

All that being said, it is definitely true that Buffalo has done nothing to strengthen its case to get the money it needs. Timid Tony Masiello and his band of no-goods have failed utterly to do anything even remotely resembling competence in handling the money the city has been given. How does a city, being overseen by an external control board and on the brink of bankruptcy piss away millions of federal dollars because it can't spend the money or meet basic program requirements? It's a damn good thing for Masiello that the recall effort was last year and was in the equally incompetent hands of Conehead Griffin or Tony might now be selling Popeil Pocket Fishermen door-to-door. Federal funds have been handled with is inexcusable and breathtaking stupidity. What is even more inexcusable is the utter lack of accountability in City Hall. There isn't a way in hell you can ever get fired if you work for Tony Masiello - not even if pictures of a department head flagrante delecto with barnyard animals surface. That might make the mayor the political equivalent of Mother Theresa but it also renders him impotent. There isn't a whole lot of quality work ever going on behind any door in City Hall anyway, but with everybody knowing that stupidity on the job has no professional consequences, the inmates are in charge of the asylum.


Copyright 2003 by Buffalo Report, Inc.