By Staff Reporter
BUFFALO — Erie County’s proposed 2027 budget gives the region’s stages, orchestras and galleries just what they got this year. For some of them, it gives less.
Line by line, County Executive Mark Poloncarz’s proposed Book A recommends $8,515,097 for 112 arts and cultural groups, by The Buffalo Chronicle’s count of the line items. That is $113,862 less than the $8,628,959 the Legislature adopted for 2026, and $448,362 below the 2026 budget as amended during the year.
His budget message lists the move among the cuts made to stay under the tax cap: “Holding funding for cultural organizations essentially flat with 2026 recommended funding levels, saving $0.3 million.”
The $0.3 million comes out of the recommendations of the county’s own Department of Environment and Planning. After its staff and the Erie County Arts and Cultural Advisory Board scored this year’s applications, the department asked for $8,835,512. The proposed budget comes in $320,415 short of that.
‘Very tight’
Mr. Poloncarz blames Washington. In his Oct. 15 announcement, he pointed to federal SNAP changes, including a cut in Washington’s share of administrative costs from half to a quarter, that the county says will cost it $13.8 million in 2027.
“The 2027 Budget is very tight, with no new programs or services except for the expected opening of Willowdale Park in 2027. This Budget funds the necessary and mandated programs that are critical to our community but is also cognizant of the burdens and obstacles that are coming because of congressional actions,” said Mr. Poloncarz.
He was blunter with 7 News WKBW. “It’s a balanced budget, it’s a fair budget. It doesn’t have any bells and whistles,” Mr. Poloncarz said. “It’s a steady-as-she-goes budget, knowing that there’s a lot of rough waters ahead if the big ugly bill is not changed.”
A day later, he told The Buffalo News on video that rising costs he blames on the federal government are why more money isn’t going to cultural groups.
The budget message makes the case in one line: “exercising caution now is how we avoid deeper cuts and layoffs later.” It also warns that if the worst federal scenarios hit, the county could be pushed to cut non-mandated services, and it names “support for cultural and community organizations” among them.
Who gets what
The biggest stages are frozen in place. The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra is down for $950,000, the same as this year and $5,000 below what it received in 2025. The Shea’s O’Connell Preservation Guild, which supports Shea’s Performing Arts Center, stays at $200,000. Irish Classical Theatre Company stays at $100,000.
Smaller companies were also held to this year’s numbers, even where the planning department had recommended modest raises:
- MusicalFare Theatre: $107,361 (department: $108,435)
- Shakespeare in Delaware Park: $116,250 (department: $118,575)
- Ujima Company: $93,000 (department: $95,000)
- Theatre of Youth: $90,000 (department: $91,800)
- Road Less Traveled Productions: $70,000 (department: $71,400)
- Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus: $50,000 (department: $51,500)
- Alleyway Theatre: $21,716 (department: $22,802)
The gaps were bigger for a few. The department recommended $10,230 for the North Park Theatre; the budget gives it $4,092. West Falls Center for the Arts was recommended for $40,458 and is down for $20,229. Buffalo String Works was recommended for $33,838 and is down for $13,535.
Where the department’s scores called for a cut, the cut stayed. Music Is Art drops from $46,500 to $43,071. The Hispanic Heritage Council of WNY drops from $46,561 to $31,524.
Then there are a dozen groups the department recommended that get nothing in the cultural line. They include D’Youville’s Kavinoky Theatre ($13,151 recommended), the Clarence Concert Association ($5,250), the Cheektowaga Community Symphony Orchestra ($3,848) and the German American Musicians Association ($2,460). The twelve recommendations add up to $85,087.
The money is weighted toward a few big institutions. Six of them, the Buffalo Zoo ($2 million), the Buffalo Museum of Science’s parent society ($955,000), the BPO, the Buffalo AKG Art Museum ($725,000, listed as Albright-Knox), the Buffalo History Museum’s society ($425,000) and the Botanical Gardens ($240,000), account for 62% of the total. The median grant in 2026 was $10,000, according to the county’s applicant briefing.
More groups asking
The squeeze lands as more groups are applying. Erie County’s 2027 application guide told applicants that the usual practice is to add about 3% to the prior year’s total, and estimated $8,887,828 would be available. WNYmedia’s summary of the advisory board’s May 8 meeting reported 126 applications this year, up from 118.
The grants are general operating support. They pay salaries, rent and utilities, not buildings. Flat dollars buy less each year as those costs climb.
That matters on Main Street, where the Theatre District is still trying to win back the downtown crowds it lost after the pandemic. At an Investigative Post forum in March, Brian Higgins, the former congressman who is now president and CEO of Shea’s, described the work as bigger than the shows.
“A lot of what we do is not only about what happens in our venues, but what happens outside of the venues. Toward what goal? To increase pedestrian density, whether you live here or you visit here,” said Mr. Higgins.
Randall Kramer, MusicalFare’s executive director, made the case for programming at the same forum. “People aren’t scared to come downtown if you give them a reason for being here,” he said. He said paid attendance had gone from 5,000 two seasons ago to an expected 35,000 this year, The Buffalo Hive reported. MusicalFare now plays Shea’s 710 Theatre, the old Studio Arena, after leaving Amherst.
What happens next
The proposal now goes to the Legislature, which holds hearings, can amend line items and is expected to vote in early December. WBEN reported the budget must be in place by Dec. 18.
Whether lawmakers add money is an open question. Republican Legislator Lindsay Lorigo, speaking for the minority, has signaled a hard look at spending in general.
“Year after year, county spending grows, and taxpayers are expected to absorb the cost. My approach is straightforward: scrutinize every dollar, challenge unnecessary spending, prioritize essential services and infrastructure and pursue meaningful tax relief,” Ms. Lorigo wrote in a statement reported by Buffalo Toronto Public Media.
Arts groups are getting ready to make their case. Arts Services Inc., the region’s arts service group, scheduled a county budget advocacy workshop for Monday night, led by executive director Jen Swan-Kilpatrick, to help groups seeking “new or increased county support.”
The open questions are concrete. Will the Legislature restore the $320,415 the planning department asked for? Will the dozen groups its reviewers backed, from a college theater to a suburban concert series, get a line? And if federal costs keep climbing, how long can the county hold even this line?
Photo: Shea’s Buffalo Theatre marquee. Karl Thomas Moore / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.
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