From the Mayor’s office:
$22.7 Million Plan Contains Wide Variety of
Capital Improvement Projects Including $3.2 Million for City Parks; Increased
Demolition Funding to $2.5 Million and Over $3 Million in Public Safety
Upgrades
Mayor Byron
W. Brown released his $22.7 million 2010 recommended capital budget,
which will be submitted to the Common Council for its consideration. Mandated
by the City Charter to be submitted by the Mayor on or before November 1st,
the Common Council has until December 15th to adopt the recommended
capital budget.
Highlights
of Mayor Brown’s 2009 Recommended Capital Budget include:
·
Buffalo Public Schools $4,900,000
·
Citywide Infrastructure Improvements $4,815,000
·
Emergency Demolitions $2,535,000
·
Martin Luther King, Jr. Park Basin & Casino Rehabilitation $1,819,000
·
Police and Fire Radio System $1,649,000
·
City-wide parks system $1,094,232
·
City-wide Community Centers $722,250
·
Kleinhan’s Music Hall Air Conditioning $525,750
·
Renovation of Johnny B. Wiley Office Bldg $428,000
·
Improvements to Downtown Ball Park (Coca Cola Field) $266,430
·
Erie Canal Harbor Streets – Phase III $53,340
“As in
previous years, this recommended capital budget contains funding for important
capital projects in every section of the city,” said Mayor Brown. “This capital
budget addresses the key areas that will further strengthen our residents’
quality of life: enhancing public safety, improving and upgrading infrastructure
throughout the city, strengthening our city parks, removing blighted,
dilapidated structures and improving and maintaining city-owned properties.”
The Mayor
prepared his 2010 recommended capital budget after receiving recommendations
for the capital budget by the Citizens Planning Council (CPC), which evaluated $125
million in requests for capital spending.
The level of
spending for the capital budget is set annually by the City Comptroller, which,
this year, set the cap at $22.7 million. The capital budget was $21.5 million
in 2009, $22 million in 2008 and $23 million in 2007.
“I
appreciate that City Comptroller SanFilippo this year increased the city’s
capital debt limit by $1.2 million, which gives the city greater flexibility in
funding important capital projects,” said Mayor Brown.
Mayor
Brown’s recommended capital budget contains a wide variety of capital
improvement projects, including over $700,000 for community center
improvements, $1.8 million for the rehabilitation of the Martin Luther King,
Jr. Park basin and casino, an additional $1,378,082 million for parks citywide,
$4.8 million for citywide neighborhood infrastructure improvements and $2.5
million for demolitions.
“This is a
capital budget that will address a variety of important needs throughout the
city, including addressing important neighborhood infrastructure improvements
and investing in our community centers,” said Mayor Brown. “In addition, it
follows the recommendations of the Citizens Planning Council to make key
investments in removing blighted structures, strengthening the city’s infrastructure
and making public safety a top priority for funding capital projects. I’m
confident, if the Common Council accepts these recommendations, that these
capital investments will enhance and strengthen our residents’ quality of life
throughout the City of Buffalo.”
In its
October 7, 2009 letter to the Mayor, the Citizens Planning Council stated, “The
Office of Strategic Planning (OSP) has been successful in complying with
Charter benchmarks, while diligently pursuing verifiable data to support the
budget requests. The OSP notified all relevant parties of the capital budget
process and all were invited to participate, submit comments, and appear before
the CPC. We thank all who appeared before the CPC to enable it to determine a
workable 2010 capital budget.”
“I thank the
members of the Citizens Planning Council for their dedication and commitment to
analyzing this critically important information, which will have a lasting and
beneficial impact on the city,” said Mayor Brown. “I also thank the staff of
the city’s Office of Strategic Planning, which worked closely with CPC,
providing key information on a variety of projects throughout Buffalo. I look
forward to working with the Common Council and the City Comptroller in enacting
this capital budget.”
Image: Joe Cascio