“My Fiscal Year 2020-2021 Recommended Budget reflects the difficult challenges our community is facing while also laying a foundation for future economic recovery and continuing innovation," said Brown. "Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the City of Buffalo’s economic and fiscal outlooks were bright and moving in the right direction. Investment throughout the entire City was up, unemployment was down by over 50% from the 2008 Recession and for the second year in a row the City was going to end the fiscal year with a projected surplus.”
However, the pandemic has unfortunately wreaked havoc on city finances.
Earlier in the week, City Comptroller Barbara Miller-Williams produced a report indicating that the city is facing a year-to-date $35 million budget deficit as of April 22.
The mayor's plan targets two strategies - the first, reducing City Hall's carbon footprint by 40%, and much of this will be accomplished by modernizing the workforce structure and emphasizing a "work from home" strategy.
The second component of the recovery plan "will be a direct injection of federal disaster relief of $65 million that will be used to make up for the shortfalls projected in the City’s various forms of revenue and due to the expenses incurred to address COVID-19."
A freeze of the City’s tax levy at the 2019-2020 Fiscal Year will allow the City to reduce tax rates because of the updated property tax revaluation. Homestead rates will go from $18.47 per $1,000 of assessed value to $9.99 per $1,000. Non-Homestead rates will go from $29.49 per $1,000 of assessed value to $16.75 per $1,000. As a result, most residents and business owners’ property taxes will either stay the same as last year or be reduced. The tax levy freeze will help reduce any financial stress residents and business owners may have been experiencing.