The Buffalo Chronicle
Feature 1
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Buffalo’s police overtime keeps climbing, and the city’s own auditors say staffing alone doesn’t explain it
Buffalo police overtime topped $17 million last year and has grown by more than a third in five years. The union blames a 100-officer shortage, but the comptroller’s numbers show overtime rising…
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Erie County Republicans try again to cap the gas tax at $2. Poloncarz, who backed a cap in 2022, calls it posturing
With Buffalo gas at $4.37 a gallon, Erie County Legislature Republicans want the county’s sales tax capped at $2 a gallon starting Dec. 1. Mark Poloncarz says the last cap enriched retailers,…
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Buffalo nonprofits press Hochul on late state payments as two contract bills await her decision
Western New York nonprofits that do the state’s work first and get paid later are pushing Gov. Kathy Hochul to sign two contracting bills. She has vetoed versions twice, citing fraud risk…
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Cheektowaga’s 9.8% tax plan leans hardest on the sewer district as the board clears a path past the cap
Cheektowaga’s board has authorized breaking the state tax cap for 2027. More than half of the $202 increase on the average town bill comes from the sewer district, as its reserves run…
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Orchard Park’s five-story stadium zone stalls after 31 residents take the microphone
Orchard Park’s plan to allow five-story buildings near Highmark Stadium was tabled after 31 people spoke at an Oct. 7 hearing, most of them opposed. It is not on tonight’s Town Board…
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Western New York’s SNAP rolls fell nearly 10 percent in a year. Albany’s free school lunch promise may pay the price
State data show 20,909 fewer Western New Yorkers on SNAP than a year ago. Because benefit rolls decide how much Washington pays for school meals, the comptroller warns New York’s universal lunch…
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Grand Island weighs leasing town land for battery storage, but the terms aren’t public
Grand Island’s Town Board is weighing a lease that would let CleanCapital put a battery storage system on town land at 1600 Whitehaven Road, while a 12-Megapack project on Bedell Road becomes…
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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…
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M&T’s profit slips as rising rates bite, and its finance chief warns mortgages and commercial real estate will feel it next
Buffalo’s hometown bank earned $775 million in the third quarter, down from $818 million. On the earnings call, CFO Daryl Bible said higher rates will slow home lending and could push more…
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Solstice will make its Buffalo lab its global research hub, with $1.4 million in state credits for 12 new jobs
The Honeywell spinoff is putting $49 million into its Peabody Street R&D site as it races to develop next-generation refrigerants. The state’s Excelsior credits work out to about $117,000 per new job,…
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Goodyear shuts its Niagara Falls chemical plant on the day its pollution fix was due. Who checks what it leaves behind?
Goodyear will close its Niagara Falls chemical plant Oct. 31, the same day a state order required permanent controls on a bladder carcinogen. Filings, permits and health studies show what has been…
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Ottawa’s watchdog prices the trade war: a smaller economy, bigger deficits and a budget target propped up by tariffs on U.S. goods
Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Office says the tariffs traded since 2025 will leave the economy 1.4% smaller and could cost up to 185,000 jobs, while Ottawa’s near-balanced budget target leans on counter-tariffs paid…
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Judge refuses to halt Seneca Nation’s Miami Street One Stop, rejecting Buffalo’s bid to stop construction
A state judge found Buffalo hadn’t shown enough immediate harm to stop work on the Seneca Nation’s $10 million One Stop at 5 Miami Street, land the federal government placed in restricted-fee…
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Traditional Gayogo̱hó:nǫʼ council challenges Cayuga Nation police appointment, saying no clan consensus approved it
The Condoled Chiefs and Clan Mothers Council says the Halftown administration’s police department was never approved by the clans, and that Cayuga families who oppose it should not be called “dissidents.”
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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…
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Buffalo Niagara added jobs again in September, but it’s the only peer region with fewer businesses than in 2020
A second straight month of hiring still left Western New York’s private sector slightly smaller than a year ago. A new Buffalo Niagara Partnership report ranks the region last among 13 peers…
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Erie County’s plan to widen its senior property-tax break has sat in committee since summer
A bill to raise Erie County’s senior exemption income limit from $37,399 to $50,000, at a cost of about $7 million, was back on the Finance and Management Committee’s agenda Oct. 15,…
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Alden’s 2027 budget sets aside $40,000 for ambulance service as Mercy Flight takes over Dec. 1
Alden’s preliminary 2027 budget carries $41,000 for ambulance service and billing after a decade of free coverage from Lancaster’s volunteer ambulance corps. Mercy Flight EMS takes over Dec. 1, but the contract’s…
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Ukrainians’ TPS reaches its deadline with DHS saying a decision will come ‘at the appropriate time’
Ukraine’s Temporary Protected Status hit its Oct. 19 end date with no federal decision, leaving about 101,000 Ukrainians nationwide protected only by a government web alert. The same day, Trump said someone…
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Amherst’s tax hike lands on plows and garbage trucks, not the general fund
Amherst’s proposed 2027 budget breaks the state tax cap by $3.55 million, yet the town’s main operating fund barely moves. The increase lands on highways, salt and garbage, with the last budget…
