The Buffalo Chronicle
State Budget
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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,…
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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.
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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,…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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NYC retirees’ annual pension payments near $5 billion
Nearly five billion dollars in pension payments were made in 2020 to more than 150,000 members of the New York City Employees’ Retirement System (NYCERS), according to new data posted today at…
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Rec and restroom facility projects among fresh DASNY pork
A total of $87 million were steered to 174 new grants for local projects over the past ten months by the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York (DASNY), according to data the Empire…
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Sales tax receipts surge statewide, filling local government coffers
BY PETER WARREN After receiving an extraordinary infusion of federal emergency aid, local governments across every region of the state raked in robust sales tax collections during the three months that ended…
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New York’s per-pupil school spending topped $25k in 2018-19
BY E.J. McMAHON New York’s spending on public elementary and secondary education reached $25,139 per pupil during the 2018-19 school year, once again surpassing all states in the latest U.S. Census annual data.…
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Voters approve nearly all school budgets within tax cap
BY PETER WARREN School budget votes proposing an average increase in per pupil spending of 4.2 percent were overwhelmingly approved in state-wide voting held yesterday, with all but five of 685 individual budget votes…
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Financial plan reflects a budget loaded with cash
BY E.J. McMAHON Barely a year after Governor Cuomo declared the state was “broke” due to the pandemic, New York’s budget is bursting with cash—fueling enormous spending hikes, as shown in the…
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Spending to skyrocket under budget deal
BY E.J. McMAHON The details apparently would get rancid if exposed to daylight, but Governor Cuomo and legislative leaders have announced the broad outlines of their budget deal for fiscal 2022, which began April…
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In Albany’s heaviest-spending year ever, lawmakers approve more pork
BY E.J. McMAHON New York and its local governments will soon be showered with tens of billions of dollars in federal stimulus cash—and yet the new state budget will pump even more money…
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Cuomo creates $2 billion fund for those living in New York illegally
Since Democrats’ $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan (ARP) was enacted in February, states have been busy designing ways to spend their share of the $350 billion in one-time federal “state and local aid” provided by that…
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Niagara Falls has infrastructure needs too, Senator Kennedy
The massive new infrastructure bill proposed by President Joe Biden makes more than two trillion dollars available to remake the American infrastructure system — and Western New York stands to be appropriated…
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Pat Whalen floated to lead NYDOT in Hochul administration
Buffalo businessman Patrick Whalen is being floated to lead the New York State Department of Transportation in the likely event that Lt. Governor Kathy Hochul will replace the increasingly embattled Governor Andrew…
