The Buffalo Chronicle
Erie County
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Federal disaster loans open to Buffalo-area homeowners, renters and businesses hit by Sept. 3 floods
The SBA’s Oct. 19 declaration covers Erie and five neighboring counties after the Sept. 3 flash flooding. Applications for physical damage loans are due Dec. 18.
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Clarence holds its tax rate flat for 2027, but leans on $3.2 million in savings to do it
Supervisor Patrick Casilio’s preliminary 2027 budget keeps Clarence’s general fund rate at about 57 cents per $1,000, but draws heavily on fund balance while road salt pushes the highway rate up. A…
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After a fatal crash, Camp Road neighbors ask the state for answers on safety
A week after a crash near St. Francis Drive killed a Buffalo woman, Hamburg residents and St. Francis High School want the state to take a hard look at Route 75. The…
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Want more starter homes in Western New York? Start with the minimum lot size
A new American Enterprise Institute paper argues that minimum lot-size rules quietly block starter homes. Amherst’s zoning code, and a pending North French Road rezoning, show what that looks like in Western…
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Upstate Niagara’s West Seneca dairy expansion grows to $325 million, with $35 million for on-site power
The cooperative’s third revision adds linear generators because of a lack of available electricity and seeks about $12.7 million in sales-tax breaks. The ECIDA holds a public hearing Tuesday at 3 p.m.
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New York’s $225 million water-for-housing fund is open only to Pro-Housing towns. Many WNY suburbs aren’t certified yet
The state’s new Clean Water for Housing grants pay up to 75% of water and sewer work tied to new homes, first come, first served. HCR’s dashboard lists 12 certified municipalities in…
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Erie County’s 2027 budget cuts the tax rate. Its own four-year plan warns of $70 million gaps
Mark Poloncarz’s 2027 budget lowers Erie County’s tax rate again, but the county’s own four-year plan projects gaps near $70 million a year as federal SNAP costs shift to counties and the…
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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…
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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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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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Niagara County weighs fully exempting its most disabled veterans from county property taxes
Niagara County lawmakers hold a hearing Tuesday on a full county property-tax exemption for veterans the VA rates permanently and totally disabled, following Erie County and Buffalo. The notice gives no cost…
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Erie County lawmakers killed a new jail. The plan to keep the two old ones running now costs $57 million
Poloncarz’s 2027 budget puts $7 million toward repairs at the Holding Center and the Alden jail, the first piece of a $57 million plan through 2032, after legislators scrapped a consolidated jail.…
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Erie County’s budget holds Buffalo’s stages to last year’s dollars and leaves out a dozen groups its own reviewers backed
Poloncarz’s 2027 budget recommends $8.5 million for 112 arts groups, $113,862 less than this year. The BPO, Shea’s and most theaters are held flat, and 12 groups the county’s own planning department…
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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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Buffalo wins a new $4 million federal lead grant; the White House budget asks Congress to shrink the national program
Buffalo’s new $4 million HUD lead grant follows one it gave half of back. Federal records show Erie County has drawn about 5% of its own $7.75 million award, and the White…
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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…
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Erie County still chasing $617,700 from Albany for jail stays left over from the prison strike
Erie County lawmakers voted unanimously to press the state for $617,700 the Sheriff’s Office spent holding parole violators during the prison staffing crisis. The state law at issue doesn’t mention parole violators,…
