The Buffalo Chronicle
State Budget
-
Albany’s $9 billion surplus cuts next year’s budget gap to $2.9 billion, two days before voters pick who spends it
The state’s Mid-Year Update raises tax revenue by $8.1 billion and cuts next year’s gap from $6.4 billion to $2.9 billion. What it means for the governor’s race, the watchdogs’ warnings, and…
-
Western New York has one in nine of the state’s cannabis shops but gets about one in 15 dollars of the local pot tax
As New York’s legal cannabis market passes $4.1 billion in sales, Comptroller data show WNY’s 78 dispensaries brought local governments $2.23 million in the first half of 2026, about $28,600 a store…
-
Dunkirk is Western New York’s only city in fiscal stress, and the state can’t score 21 other local governments
The comptroller’s latest scores put Dunkirk in significant fiscal stress as it weighs an 11 percent tax hike, while 21 Western New York governments, including Jamestown, North Tonawanda and Salamanca, filed too…
-
Hochul’s $36 million for crime victim programs has yet to flow as providers cut staff
The August boost was routed through the same Office of Victim Services procurement now under appeal at the Comptroller’s office, nearly a month after contracts were due to start.
-
Hochul sends $5.8 million to Amherst and Williamsville for the Peanut Line Trail and Island Park
The state is putting $3.8 million into Amherst’s 4.9-mile Peanut Line Trail and $2 million into removing the old dam at Williamsville’s Island Park, with the money flowing through the Dormitory Authority.
-
Western New York won a third of MOVE-IN NY’s starter-home money. Here is where its 96 homes stand
Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Lackawanna and the Town of Tonawanda won about $29 million to place 96 factory-built starter homes. Records show lots identified and approvals under way in some communities, and few…
-
Hochul’s budget office warns the data center backlash, including her own pause, could cool the AI boom paying New York’s bills
The state budget director told agencies to hold 2028 requests flat and warned that government scrutiny of AI infrastructure could slow the investment wave behind New York’s $7.3 billion revenue surprise.
-
Albany is running $9.7 billion ahead of plan. Its own books say Buffalo shouldn’t count on it lasting
Wall Street’s record run left New York’s General Fund $9.7 billion above projections at midyear. The state’s financial plan still shows $31.7 billion in gaps ahead, and Erie County and Buffalo have…
-
Niagara Falls gets $25 million toward a $338 million sewer plant fix its own engineers call unaffordable
Western New York landed $66.6 million in Albany’s new water grants. The biggest award covers about 7 percent of a Niagara Falls sewage plant overhaul that the water board’s engineers say ratepayers…
-
Still waiting on your $200 energy rebate? Most New Yorkers are, and the checks keep coming through December
Only 3 million of 8.2 million POWER checks had arrived by mid-October. Here’s who qualifies, why your neighbor may get one first, and what the $1 billion payout means for a state…
-
Washington’s ‘big shift’ is landing on New York’s books, and counties still don’t know what Albany will pass down
Federal H.R. 1 cuts are moving Medicaid, Essential Plan and SNAP costs onto Albany and the counties. Erie County faces $13.8 million now and a possible $55 million a year later, and…
-
HEAP winter heating aid opens Nov. 2 as delivered-fuel benefits rise
New York’s HEAP season opens Nov. 2 with higher oil and wood benefits. Western New York received 132,462 benefits last winter; Erie County authorized more than 93,000. Emergency HEAP begins Jan. 4,…
-
New York is $7.3 billion ahead of its tax forecast at midyear. Watchdogs are split on what to do with it
Comptroller DiNapoli reports state tax receipts ran $7.3 billion above projections through September, driven by Wall Street and business taxes, even as $31.7 billion in out-year budget gaps loom.
-
Blakeman’s plan to save Syracuse University would adopt Cornell’s governance model
BY STAFF REPORTER Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman’s soon to be announced plan to save Syracuse University from closure does not ask the state to buy the campus, fold it into SUNY,…
-
New York on track to experience energy deficits of 10% or more
ALBANY, NY – (May, 20, 2022) – The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) places New York communities at risk of devastating blackouts due to insufficient electricity levels, according to Cold…
-
Hochul asks MTA to consider taking over Amtrak’s upstate service lines
Governor Kathy Hochul is asking the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber to evaluate whether or not the agency (which runs the State’s two commuter rail systems, Metro North and…
-
Hochul will fund construction of ten new Thruway exits — including at least two in Western New York
(December 22, 2021) — Sources close to Governor Kathy Hochul say that she will include money in next year’s Thruway Authority budget to construct at least ten new exit interchanges on the…
-
Sluggish in September: NY job growth still trails U.S.
BY E.J. McMAHON New York’s employment recovery slowed to a near halt in the crucial month of September, falling further behind the national growth rate in the 18th full month since the…
-
The Health Department’s response to a FOIL request for nursing home data triggers worry
BY BILL HAMMOND Despite Governor Hochul’s promises of transparency, the state Health Department continues responding to requests for pandemic data with stalling tactics that became notorious during the Cuomo administration. In one…
-
How are the billions in emergency aid to New York being spent?
BY PETER WARREN A new dashboard posted yesterday on the Comptroller’s website could become the lens through which New Yorkers see how tens of billions of dollars in one-shot federal funding is being spent by…
