BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) Erie County is looking at financing scenarios for its share of the new Bills stadium; specifically how much the county will put down versus how much it will borrow for the stadium.
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz has recommended, of the $250 million dollars that is the county share, $75 million dollars in surplus money be applied to the stadium.
Republican Minority Leader Joe Lorigo has suggested kicking in another $25 million to make it $100 million, leaving $150 million to finance.
"Both, in my opinion, are worthy of looking at," said Kevin Hardwick, Erie County Comptroller. "I'm not sure if I would be opposed to whatever they decide."
He likens it to buying a home or a car, but on a much larger scale. "How much do you want to put down? The more you put down, the less you have to pay in interest over time. But you may need some of the down payment now."
Hardwick said there are cases to be made for either scenario. "The thing I wanted to stress to legislators, is that it's important that whatever we're going to do, we do as soon as possible, because the longer we wait to start the project, the longer we wait to go into the bond market, and the higher the interest costs are going to be."
Interest rates are rising on everything from houses, to car loans and credit cards. The Federal Reserve raised the federal funds rate on Wednesday and signs point to additional rate hikes this year.
The Comptroller's office has put together some scenarios for legislators. A best guess of how much it would cost doing it one way versus another, and how much the savings would be.
"I don't see my role as making a recommendation unless alarm bells are going off on one side which could lead to financial ruin for the county."
The Comptroller's office is seen as the county's fiscal watchdog. But Hardwick said you don't want the watchdog barking every time there's a squirrel.
"The county right now is awash in cash," said Hardwick (the county had a record $174 million dollar surplus at the end of last year). "Much of the cash is a one time windfall after all of the stimulus spending, as well as Opioid settlement money and casino revenue," said Hardwick. The question is,
can you put that money down? Certainly you can and you will save tens of millions of dollars of interest over time. But there may be other pressing needs and it's up to the legislature to determine that."
The other option is to save the surplus money for a rainy day, because things are going to change and as Hardwick said, the future looks cloudy. Ultimately, it will be up to the legislature to decide.
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