The Buffalo Chronicle
Mark Poloncarz
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Erie County is right to open a 24/7 shelter. It should show the public the bill.
Erie County is right to open a 200-bed winter shelter on South Park Avenue. But it bid a 24/7 program with local money covering warm nights, and it should publish that cost…
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Erie County’s helicopter deal shows how its purchasing office slipped past its own guardrails
An April audit says Erie County’s purchasing office let one helicopter become two without legislative review, paid a deposit to the wrong vendor and could not document much of its own work.…
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Erie County’s new South Park shelter will stay open on warm nights, too, and local taxpayers will cover those nights
Erie County’s lease on the former Buffalo Creek Academy began Nov. 1. County documents show the shelter will run 24/7 all winter, with local funds paying for nights the state won’t reimburse,…
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Erie County picks a South Park school for a permanent Code Blue shelter and tells City Hall it doesn’t need permission
Erie County wants to lease the former Buffalo Creek Academy on South Park Avenue as a permanent emergency shelter, says it is immune from city zoning, and faces objections from Majority Leader…
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Albany should not hand Erie County the bill for SNAP’s error-rate penalty
Washington is shifting SNAP costs to the states, and New York passes its share to counties. Albany should commit now to absorbing any SNAP benefit penalty and renew Erie County’s sales tax…
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Bills fans paid $1.08 million in Erie County’s stadium surcharge in August. Where does it go?
A 6% Erie County surcharge on tickets, food and merchandise at the new Highmark Stadium raised $1.08 million in August alone. Where the money goes, who tracks it, and what still isn’t…
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WNY ‘No Kings’ rallies turn protest energy toward early voting
Saturday’s No Kings rallies across Western New York pushed early voting Oct. 24–Nov. 1. Mayor Sean Ryan, Supervisor Brian Nowak and organizers cast turnout as the test that follows the signs.
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New York Democrats press DHS for the last $87 million in counterterror grants Trump pledged to restore; $100 million has been released
Thirteen New York Democrats are demanding DHS release $87 million in counterterror grants still owed to the state. Erie County says the program funds police radios and in-car connections across Buffalo, Erie…
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Upstate Niagara’s West Seneca dairy expansion has more than doubled in cost. Now it’s back for more tax relief
The farmer-owned cooperative’s plan has grown from $150 million to $325 million in two years, and it needs $30 million in generators because grid power isn’t available. A public hearing on a…
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Poloncarz’s $2.4 billion budget trims the tax rate but raises the levy as federal cuts loom
Erie County’s proposed 2027 budget cuts the tax rate to $3.01 but collects $12.7 million more. It also absorbs $13.8 million in new SNAP costs, with a possible $55 million hit in…
