imagine what kind of surplus we'd have if we could ditch the unions..taxes would be lower, more money spent on infrastructure, colleges, jobs, parks, etc etc etc...
imagine what kind of surplus we'd have if we could ditch the unions..taxes would be lower, more money spent on infrastructure, colleges, jobs, parks, etc etc etc...
It appears that the Control Board is working. I have no faith that the City can manage their own finances at any time in the near future. I expect that they will burn through any surplus and put us back into the red within a year of the control board's demise. I expect that our elected officials will give into the demands of local unions (teachers, police, fire, csea) to win votes and to perpetuate the decades of decline. We need the financial control board and we need a government oversight board to reduce waste and inefficiency, add meritocracy on top of that and we have a plan for future growth.
I have to agree with The_other_mike. A few good years does not correct the decades of mismanagement that led to the problem in the first place. It will take more time to weed out their old habits. Furthermore, I understand that many of the union contracts are up in the near future. I think the control board will be needed until these contracts are negotiated.
Looking at the surplus by itself lacks context.
The BFSA Act should be modified if necessary to keep the control board at full power until long term lower cost contracts are in place for police, teachers, fire, and other employees. In exchange for raises, benefit packages should be reduced and work rules made less stringent. Mayors and Council members are usually very cozy with city unions. The control board represents the taxpayers (city and state).
Otherwise the city would before long slip back into the same mess that caused the control board in the first place.
i too have no faith in a control board-free city hall. brown wants the control board gone because he's in the pockets of the unions and so he can use that as one of his triumphs as mayor.
keep the control board forever please. same to erie county.
My confidence in this administration has plummetted to Zero in the past year. No way should they actually gain any power, if anything, the opposite should happen.
I agree with ben franklin....
Also, We cannot ditch the control board until we get rid of the Garbage User Tax... err fee.
These numbers prove the City needed a watchdog to right its wrongs. Its been many years of wrongs that got it to the point where a board was needed and now the results of that boards presence are significantly positive for the city's finances. I say we maintain that board a few more years and make certain nobody goes nuts as soon as they are free from that board. Who knows where those years and years of tax money went before the board was put in place?
The City is on the right path. A questions I have is: what is a truly healthy surplus for a municipality? Another thing that would help the City bank account would be the sales of the parking ramps and returning these to the tax roles. Spending money on road improvements to streets in the City, that most people would not even call a street, becuase of their poor condition, would be a good thing. Also restoring the brick streets and repaving some of the City streets with brick or cobblestone would be great!
How about we use some of that surplus to fix Pearl downtown by HSBC. If I have coffee from starbucks in my car I have to avoid going down it or else it is spilt everywhere.... There is even a one foot ditch over there that spans the entire right side of the road for a few feet that cars swing to the left hand side to avoid.
I do have to say that I hope this surplus isn't spent all in one place and that the spending trends (cash flow) is utilized in a way that finds a balance between income and services that will prevent us from this embarrassment again.
If the control board keeps us in the black. We need to keep the control board.
I have to agree with the majority of the people who have been commenting. If the control board seems to be working and the city is starting to turn around then why would we want to abolish it? We need it here for a good amount of time until the city can control spending on its own and until the cities projects take shape. Getting rid of it now would just let the "Good Ol' Boys" do what they do best...help each other and nobody else and put the city back where it was, if not worse.
Now that a nice surpluss is built up the city should take a look at tweaking tax rates a bit somthing like reducing them by 2-3% per year times the nest five years with a goal of 10-15% tax reduction over 5 years. Somthing modest like that would go a long way I think, at the same time ( with a hard control board oversight) negotiate a fresh set of contracts for city and school district employees that can make these modest reductions possible, and sustainable. I know a lot of people will look at this and say 15% WTF you need 50% well to those people I think we have to be realistic, every year we reduce or even hold the line is great, and yes get rid of the garbage fee!!
I too must add my voice to those that oppose the transition of the City away from BFSA control; advisory seems to be a euphemism for ineffectual.
Sadly, it was the ineptitude of our city leaders in the past and their kowtowing to the unions and others that delivered the city to its skid row destination. Yes, one can acknowledge that the budgeting has been successful in the last few years, but I cannot and will not subscribe to the notion that Army of 1000 Clowns in City Hall had anything to do with it voluntarily; in fact, I’d wager they resent every moment they need to go before the BFSA.
In some ways I was hoping that when the BFSA assumed financial control that it was the first step in a trend towards consolidating of the local governing body that would open the flood gates for more regional based economics and planning. Unfortunately I think I was wishing for too much.
To add on to a thought that Joshua had about selling the parking ramps and returning them to the tax base I believe it is high time city owned properties be put on the market in a transparent manner. The city of Baltimore after inheriting a large cache of dilapidated rowhouses in the Otterbein neighborhood from the failed “preferred” route of 95 initiated the Dollar Home Urban Homesteading Program. Anyone could buy a house in the Otterbein neighborhood for one dollar as long as they met certain criteria and agreed to certain caveats. The first and foremost agreement was that improving the property had to begin within six months of acquisition. The second was that a minimum of money be spent on the renovation (I am not sure what that dollar amount was). The third was that the home would serve as the buyer’s primary residence for three years after the renovation’s completion. The turn out for the tour of homes the city was selling was overwhelming and the city had to sell the houses by lottery.
Once the experiment in Otterbein could prove itself successful the City would not allow development to occur on the surrounding streets and vacant lots. Of course, this program did prove successful and Otterbein and the adjacent neighborhood of Federal Hill are some of the most expensive properties on the market and command some of the highest per square foot value in the city. Baltimore’s program has been modified over the years and is not as strict or concentrated as the first phase in Otterbein; however, the program can no longer boast the same successes and is out of step with the Federal program that has developed in its wake.
Now, Buffalo had (as many cities both large and small did after the success of Baltimore) a similar program to this, and still does to a certain extent; however, because of the manner in which it was executed the program was bogged down in cross agency and board administration and coordination, in addition to the associated politics, and proved a dismal failure (as it did in many other cities – most going belly up by the mid-80s). The difference is that in Buffalo the program didn’t go away completely and morphed into several different incarnations. Currently, deep in the bowels of the real estate office at City Hall, the Urban Homestead Program chugs on in a low key and somewhat crippled manner. It’s time to reinvigorate this program and give it some traction to bring people back into the city, reverse sprawl, and put these homes back in the City’s tax base.
There was an article about PUSH’s efforts in this arena back in the early October ’07 issue.
If Brown gets rid of the control board then all I can say is that he is one dumb [deleted] guy and I think others can substitute a more suitable derogatory term.
Look around: abandoned homes and homes that have no hope of ownership without simple things like a new roof, gutters and paint that would be a fraction of the price of demolition or public housing.
Look around: streets need to be repaved, light rail extended, water mains leaking 50%, sewar overflows polluting our lake and rivers at the same time we are trying to increase tourism and waterfront property
Look around: CVB and Film Bureau lost their funding to promote and market Buffalo much less plan for a new convention and conference center
Look around: Idle brownfields and industrial sites and factories and warehouses that need marketing and updating....and well as help building new industries and new warehouses
Our employment base is precarious at best...we are still losing industry and if this subprime mess hits our local banking industry then everything could explode.
Neither the county or the city have reformed anything to produce any efficiencies or cost savings. Infact the majority of the surplus is state aid increases which could be taken away or cut on a moments notice.
and this jackass of a mayor wants to get rid of the only thing that has any capability of balancing union negotiations, especially with an arbitrator....and he wants to do it before any new union contracts are signed.
Brown...your an idiot
Just imagine if we had "adult supervision" (i.e. control board) starting 20 years ago. I'm sorry, I just don't have faith in any of the elected officials to do what is right for the city - too often they have sacrificed the good of the city for their own personal interests.
Surplus? Great! Now lower my @#$%^& taxes!
Keep the Board to ensure further surpluses to allow room for further tax cuts. City Hall cannot be trusted with the property it "owns" now.
The creation of the Control Board was the creation of the third party decision maker in Buffalo. It was created as an authority to say NO because Tony and the gang, and all his recent predecessors could never say to No to pay raises, political patronage goodies, no show jobs or eliminating jobs as the city's population declined. The surplus exists because the control board forced the necessary changes to be made to create the surplus. There is no evidence that Mayor Brown has immunity to any of the above mentioned political pressures and traditional practices just because he can tout the efficiency of Citistat or that he can withstand direct assaults from the unions once an immune-from-The Taylor Law Control Board is no longer their main target of anger or every politicians' sympathetically soaked favorite out of having to make the deals that eventually led to the creation of the Control Board in the first place. Does anyone seriously believe that the all of the usual players in deficit creation in Buffalo government won't be at his and the Common Council's front door the day the Control Board goes out of business. In my opinion, The Control Board can be done away with only when the current generation of municipal union leadership and city politicians has moved on from the scene.
the control board needs to stay. it is amazing what can be done when INCOMPETENT POLITICIANS are removed from the picture. This was a fast turn around. getting rid of the board will revert things back to the way they were. PLEASE STAY!
So much rare unanimity on an important topic, so it's worth a quick count of those saying directly yes or no -
At least 17 commenters want to keep a strong control board as is.
Zero commenters want it relaxed to advisory status.
Other comments don't say directly (incl. Tony, Joshua, Amir, Zen, Ecb, Drl, Gaustad). Won't count them either way.
17-0. Any politicians reading this want to go on record here with a rebuttal?
The city doesn't really have a surplus. Isn't most of its revenue from the state in the form of increased state aid? I say keep the control board. City gov't should be disbanded and merged into the county anyway.
great idea, do away with CITY GOVERNMENT and KEEP THE CONTROL BOARD..........
We could make this into a program on TLC or the Home and Garden network. One of those shows where an expert comes into your house to show you how to raise your kids, clean, or organize your home. The reality portion of these shows is that most people revert to their old habits even after they know what they should be doing. We could call this "MAYOR SWAP" or "How corrupt is your government".
I have no doubt (as someone said) that the Mayor and his appointed and elected ass clowns resent the hell out of being parented by the control board. They want the money to pay off the unions to get votes (as someone said). I agree completely, take away the control board, the unions get rich and our taxes go up. Keep the control board and our beloved Mayor has a difficult time convincing us that our yearly tax boost is necessary! Keep the control board, lose the Mayor.
I think we took a hard look at their revenue sources to see if the State is the reason we are experiencing surpluses, especially how all the rage lately is how much money the Capital District has rec'd thru Bruno and his barrel of pork. If the city is really producing new revenue sources, and cutting expenditures, to combat both a decreasing residential tax base and a left over supply of services, than this news really says something in five short years.
How about giving half the dough to the Seneca's and the other half to WBE/MBE companies in Louisianna. I'm not saying it's a smart move - I'm just bracing myself not to let be let down when we do this. Oh yeah - give the councilmen $100k in pork each. They need to purchase weapons and build forts to fight each other.
wasnt the war of 1812 fought between poland and cheektowaga over native sovereign gaming writes? isnt that why george coit set fire to the erie canal and burned buffalo to the ground? didnt this historic event lead to what we now call guttural warnings? i think we should let the control bard sing, and spread peace throughout our land. common people, if we all work together buffalo can become a great city once again, maybe even a state someday.
Indeed. I snoped the war of 1812 and nonono's facts checked out. check it out:
www.warof1812betweenpolandandcheektowagaaintnojoke.com
ok too much to read but got into this too late. I also think the city should and needs to have the control board. The unions would drain this city dry in a heart beat if they could. Not all of them are bad but the big three are probably the worst offenders as they have the most votes to offer.
I don't think the control board really has any impact on influencing whether or not a developer wants to comes to the city. If anything it is proof that we are not going to be allowed to dig ourselves a deeper grave. Plus knowing that state aid has increased really does deflate these numbers significantly.
Maybe eventually we should get rid of the control boards but for now and the near term I think they should remain, perhaps as someone stated the best action to create a leaner better government will be to merge or eliminate some of them. I likes the article today in the News that said that if the village of OP's government disappeared and everything was handled by the county / town no one would even notice.
I say we get rid of the control board and Mayor Brown and bring in Satish Mohan to run the city!
"The War of 1812 fought between Poland and Cheektowaga"? Sounds like a terrible fratricide. Now I wonder if New Jersey actually stole the name "Pulaski Skyway" from a much more deserving Buffalo, out of....jealousy?
BTW, I much prefer wasteful overspending, especially if it's lavished on great architecture and whores like myself.
What a great idea! Freeze wages for successive years and, POOF, we achieve a surplus!. Then, let people like us reorganize the city and spend it. Ingenious. There's nothing quite like "found money."
"There's nothing quite like "found money." ............
right you r pegger, especially when 'found' under the corpse of political integrity.
wage freezes and global warming
N E is sW E L L
I like to compare the City to a young child and the Control Board to his parent. Let's say a jar of cookies is left out on the kitchen table and the child comes into the kitchen and eats them all. The parent comes in, scolds the child and puts the cookie jar up on a shelf so that the child is unable to reach it. As time goes by, the cookie jar slowly becomes full again. At that point, would the parent be wise to take the cookie jar down and put it back on the kitchen table? I don't think so!
Can we get a control board for the Erie County Water Authority, the State Thruway Authority, and the Power Authority? I'd like to see additional scrutiny and governance put on these organizations. What about a State Control Board?
N Ew is sWELL
(sorry. im typing in an abandoned building owned by bob freundenheim on george coits discarded lap top)
Grass Roots has a mayor in office, 2 councilmembers, assemblywoman Peoples and 60th district Sen Thompson -and that's just the tip of the iceberg. They will appoint the future members of the control board, too. Anything else would resut in them suing the city, before a judge they appointed.
Just a quick thaught the interest alone on $117 mil probably adds up to somthing in the range of $5-7 million per year, that alone is nothing to scoff at. Do any of you think that some of this let's say even the yearly interest should be aimed at tax relif? I know it's not a lot but the interest is truely " found money"
$5 - $7 million can sure get a lot of votes in this town! The problem with the control board is that they are doing the mayor's job for him. We elected him to run the city, if he can't do that then we should impeach or remove him. The control board is enabling him to blame someone else for the poor job that he is doing.
ou are a fan of regionalism I take it? Let's talk about what we can do with this money and do it ASAP before Nyron and Brian Davis get any bright ideas...
Would the real Meg Bottoms please stand up?
while i am not advocating the removal of the control board, it is worth looking at why the Administration wants it gone. First off, the fact that expense or bid +$50,000 needs board approval (when the board only meets once a month), the governing process is inevitably slowed down. The bigger issue, however, is that the control board has not been effective to enact the change needed for taming the out of control contracts of city workers. A wage freeze has been in place for several years, which has certainly helped save the city a ton of money; but with court rulings in favor of the labor contracts, a huge chunk of that surplus could be gone. Essentially, the control board is putting off the inevitable. I fear that once the control board leaves, whether it be next year, or in five years, the city will be left with a huge bill of backpay it is required to give to the workers. The unions aren't going to negotiate to the control board's wants, especailly since they know that if they hold out, they could very likely receive a ruling from the courts that provide them with all the pay kikes they would have received had the board not came in.
Instead of just demonizing the unions or the mayor, we should be trying to figure out a way to negotiate with unions in good faith. it would certainly make sense to have the control board part of that process, but unfortunately i don't think the unions trust the control board.
to reiterate my first sentiment, i am not advocating the removal of the control board, i just think the issue is not as basic as many on here have argued.
does anybody kow the total amount of paid, elected and appointed politicians work in Buffalo/Erie? Anyone have the total?
BTD, Kevin Gaughan put together thecost.org, in an attempt to get local governments to downsize. His numbers are 439 politicians at $32,140,386. For more information, probably best to check the site.
http://www.thecost.org
...The unions aren't going to negotiate to the control board's wants, especailly since they know that if they hold out, they could very likely receive a ruling from the courts that provide them with all the pay hikes they would have received had the board not came in....
bfloBR - That's probably true, which is why I suggested extending a strong CB until AFTER long term contracts are approved by all parties: mayor, council, the CB, and all unions. Modify BFSA legislation if necessary to make that happen. Eventually unions might offer serious concessions in benefits and work rules in exchange for new contracts with some pay raises. There's no hurry. I'm not demonizing unions or the mayor, but the mayor and council in a city like Buffalo are very politically beholden to unions, the NYS arbitration laws are biased in their favor, and they can often find judges to rule their way as well. The taxpayers (city and state) are represented by a stong CB. I wouldn't oppose adjustment to expense limit for needing approval - say raise it from the $50K you mentioned up to $100K or something reasonable. The important thing is getting long term deals that are much more in taxpayers favor to help correct for so many decades of contracts having grown in the unions favor.
Btw, I think you forgot to mention another big reason the administration and council want the CB gone. Then again, it's so obvious maybe it doesn't need mentioning.
Ben: That's exactly what I was hoping to see. Thank you for the convenient response. If I remember correctly, Erie had >430 elected/appointed/hired politicians and Monroe County has <40. I will do some fact checking both on that site you gave me and b verifying. This topic interested me greatly...
Forgive the format, but vhevk out www.thecost.org - Gaughan could've been a great mayor...
New York City/Greater Baltimore/Greater Charlotte'Greater Indianapolis/Greater Buffalo Governments 1 3 8 14 45 Politicians 64 33 60 159 341 Elected Officials 248 95 135 239 439 Population 8,115,135 1,670,119 752,366 863,251 941,293 Pop. Change Since '90 +792,571 +54,643 +240,933 +66,092 -27239 Pop. Change Since '70 +219,572 +81,372 +397,710 +70,952 -172198 Births per 1,000 15.4 13.1 17.5 12.1 11.3
H.L.Mencken said it best: "Anyone running for public office that loses should be publicly hanged."
Anyone running a public office (in Buffalo) should be publicly hanged. I won't begin to spill the corrupt deals I have witnessed, but get your head out of your ass people...this vity is corrupt and B-lining for disfunct. Wanna buy a carriage house ot a mansion with incomes...cheap? I'm moving to Beruit where I feel safe...
I have an idea, let's take the only thing that's stopped Buffalo's 60 year downward spiral and get rid of it just when it's started to work. That's a F A N T A S T I C idea!!! Whoopee! Let's all go back to shopping ourselves to sleep and looking for good union jobs with the city, or perhaps one of the local utilities.
I don't know about Beiruit, BTD, I hear that some Hezbollah insiders wrangled no-bid contracts to reline the sewage canals to outlying agriculture with inferior cement. Try Fallujah instead, they have a positive, pro-business climate and eager and willing jobless youths.
Falujah - they willlove me when I come!! Do they have internet service? I need to stay in touch to let people on BRO know how much better it is there...
A few important things to keep in mind that are missing from this entire discussion.
The control board isn't free. The budget for the BFSA is between 1 and 1.5 million dollars. These are tax dollars that could be otherwise invested in the community. Also, the unions are not the root cause of all of our regions problems. More importantly, Mayor Brown and the unions aren't exactly friends these days and haven't been since the day he got into office. If the control board went away the city wouldn't suddenly be looking to throw money at the city's bargaining units. The problem is, as one person noted, that because of the control board there isn't any negotiating going on - contracts are being settled in the courts and we are all wasting a hell of a lot of money. The control board is not empowered by its statute to be a party in collective bargaining agreements, it just thinks it is. The control board just voted down a contract for crossing guards. Some of the crossing guards earn only $7.09/hour (NYS minimum wage is $7.15 in case you weren't aware). They don't like the fact that these part time workers have health care benefits even though the workers made concessions in the contract and will now contribute more to their health care. The denial of this contract is only going to further poison relations between the city and its other unions, further diminishing the chance of settling contracts and doing away with lawsuits.
Also, I can't say I have a huge degree of love for a lot of our elected leadership, but at least I have the right to vote for them or not for them. I have the right to organize other people to vote and to lobby. The control board is a layer of unelected, unaccountable bureaucracy that is pretending to be politically neutral while clearly executing a political agenda. The control board is no different that all of the other authorities that one of the commentators mentioned. We should be doing away with these authorities not adding authorities to oversee authorities.
alikat - It's irrelevant and subjective whether unions are "the root cause of all of our region's problems". That's a wildly extreme standard. What's hard to deny is growing costs in city/union contracts have been a serious problem for many years.
One could argue the CB is undemocratic, but there's other non-elected power involved as well such as contract arbitrators who almost always seem agreeable to union demands over the years. They're also unelected and unaccountable. The mayor and council aren't fully accountable either because they commit future taxpayers to payments well beyond their terms of office. The CB provides good check and balance, its role is limited to matters of fiscal discipline (not policy), and its cost pays for itself many times over.
If more democracy is needed, how about a public referendum on whether a strong control board should continue indefinitely or at least until lower cost contracts are in place?
About the crossing guard contract, even the Buffalo News editorial board who supports liberal causes and usually endorses pro-union Dems (Jim Keane, etc.) strongly agrees with control board's rejection. They point out the proposed contract still exceeded what similar cities pay crossing guards. Excerpt from their Jan 8 editorial:
http://www.buffalonews.com/opinion/editorials/story/246164.html
...the control board is right, and Mayor Brown is wrong, on their conflict over the contract offered to the city’s school crossing guards. ...A 23 percent wage hike over three years, plus the continuation of partially paid health insurance that stays with the workers in retirement, are what have caused the board to hold up their own stop sign to the crossing guards. Control board research and common sense suggest that this is unusual for part-time, seasonal employees. That level of benefits is not available to crossing guards in, for example, Rochester and Syracuse. Taking such benefits away from current workers may be too harsh. But those who hire on after a set date ought not to expect such lavish terms. ... if the control board doesn’t have the clout to stop the city from entering into labor contracts that condemn future taxpayers to increasingly unaffordable benefit packages, the problems will never end. ...
"Crossing Guard contracts"? Now I know who's taking the minutiae at city council meetings...
Yeah Damp, but that's the biggest sin of the CB according to the mayor - them nixing the guard contract. Latest canary in the contract coal mine.
Maybe all of you who love this control board so much would prefer to live under a communist government or a situation where we have little to no say over our leadership. Why bother with a city government at all? I'm sure we can find enough smart wealthy people who can make all the decisions for the city, and even though they will command a healthy salary, the elimination of the entire city government will save a ton of money in the long run. (I think someone already did the calculation above - nice!) I've been in corporate america for years, and I've realized its just a better way to run things. Democracy was an interesting experiment, but for Buffalo it just doesn't make sense anymore. I can personally assure you that had the Control Board been running this city entirely for the last few years, we'd have no vacant homes, no brownfields, no abandoned homes, there would be few streets that need to be repaved, a light rail extension would be under contruction, water mains would be fixed, sewer overflows would no longer be polluting our lake and rivers which would be a boon to tourism and waterfront development. In fact, we'd have more factory jobs, GM and Ford would be realizing the highest profits in years, and Buffalo would be looked at as a model of all rust belt cities. I'm with you Chris69, I hope this "Subprime" pandemic doesn't come to Buffalo, how have we even been spared so far??
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