Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Nearly two weeks after a State Supreme Court judge ruled in favor of the City of Buffalo over the refusal of issuing bonds for a number of capital projects, City Comptroller Barbara Miller-Williams has directed her office to issue and sell those bonds pursuant to the 2025 Capital Budget and Bond Resolutions adopted by the Buffalo Common Council.
While Miller-Williams continues to respect the Judicial Branch of government and acknowledges the directives outlined in the Court’s Memorandum Decision, she remains deeply concerned about how that decision will affect the city’s long-term fiscal stability.
"The Erie County Supreme Court has spoken, and I will act in accordance with the law, while continuing to explore all lawful avenues of Judicial Review available to my office," said the City Comptroller in a statement on Tuesday. "My duty to the citizens and taxpayers of Buffalo remains unchanged — to ensure that every financial decision is made responsibly and with an eye toward the city’s long-term fiscal health. I will continue to evaluate every measure necessary to prevent future generations from bearing the burden of today’s fiscal choices."
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Specifically, she has underscored the risks of borrowing beyond the debt cap identified in the Fiscal Year 2024–2025 Comptroller’s Estimate and Report, the dangerous precedent of ignoring the City’s established Capital Debt Management Policy in the appropriations of futures Capital Budgets, and the continued lack of urgency from both the Administrative and Legislative branches to address the city’s growing financial challenges.
At first, Miller-Williams' attorney William Savino told WBEN an appeal of the State Supreme Court's decision was "very likely". However, other officials in city government are pleased to learn there will be no appeal coming from the City Comptroller.
"This has dragged out far too long. It has impacted the City of Buffalo negatively financially, and I don't want that to go on for one more day," said Buffalo's Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon in an interview with WBEN. "It has dragged out projects that could have been started, that could have helped communities across the City of Buffalo. And all I want is for this work to commence."
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"Ultimately, when you see Cars on Main Street, Jefferson Avenue, fire apparatuses, streets, sidewalks, infrastructure, lighting, community centers, these are all vital projects that are within our Capital Budget that we'll start seeing forward momentum on," said Fillmore District Councilman Mitch Nowakowski with WBEN. "I just hope that as we move forward, we don't miss out on too much more of the construction season, and can continue progress on the behalf of the City of Buffalo.
Even though the comptroller is moving ahead with the sales of the bonds, Nowakowski is still disappointed that the city was forced to miss a chunk of the construction season that will delay projects.
"I ultimately understand the City Comptroller is scrutinizing finances, in which she's tasked to do, but a majority of these BANs [Bond Anticipation Notes] that we asked the comptroller to go to market for are reimbursable funds," Nowakowski said. "Ultimately, a chunk of it was also the Buffalo Public Schools', where we are the bonding authority. So $55 million of that Capital Budget was on behalf of the Buffalo Public Schools. Where you see in suburban communities, those school boards bond out themselves as those governing bodies, and suburban voters oftentimes have to vote on that at the ballot box. We don't do that here in the City of Buffalo. We give half our tax levy to the Buffalo Public Schools."
Nowakowski is hopeful the delay won't be too much more of a hindrance, and the city can get back out to bid on the bigger projects and providing the services for the residents of Buffalo.
"Oftentimes, Council members, we're at block club meetings, we're talking to constituents. We're out every single day in our districts examining issues when it comes to infrastructure and quality of life, and so we put those priorities in a Capital Budget to see that it's executed. And ultimately, Buffalonians and taxpayers want to see progress in the city, and we can do both things at the same time," Nowakowski said. "And multiple things can be true. We know that we have to structurally fix our operating budget, but we also know that we have to bond out work to keep infrastructure and to keep up our city when it comes to upgrades to our infrastructure. We know when we neglect it, it oftentimes gets worse and then it's more expensive to fix."
So what projects in the city are going to be an immediate focal point for local leaders? In particular, it's some of the larger infrastructure projects like middle Main Street, Bailey Avenue and Jefferson Avenue.
"Projects we worked to get on the books, and these are larger ticket items that if they drag out, obviously, are going to cost a lot more. The sooner we can lock in prices associated with those projects, the better for the taxpayer. So large scale infrastructure projects like that are the most important to get locked in right away," Scanlon said.
Despite this issue over the bonding for capital projects in Buffalo and needing a court to rule one way or the other, Scanlon has no ill will toward the City Comptroller or her office.
"The comptroller took a stance she believed was right, that what her job is. I have no problem with that," Scanlon said. "But I think if you read the Charter, I believe it's backed up by Judge Colaiacovo's decision, the comptroller's role in this is advisory, not that she gets to determine how much or what the projects are. So there's no ill will on my part towards the comptroller or her staff. One thing I've always talked about during my time in office is my want and my willingness to partner with as many people as possible, because I think that when we are on the same page, pulling in the same direction, that's when we're the best version of Buffalo."
Scanlon does disagree, though, with the comptroller's assessment of how the issuance of the bonds will affect the city’s long-term fiscal stability.
"The comptroller set a cap at $28 million, our capital budget was $110 million. That $82 million difference is completely reimbursed through New York State or the Buffalo Public Schools. That is not adding any financial burden to the City of Buffalo," Scanlon said. "That $82 million is completely reimbursed, except for the cost of issuance of the bonds, which is about $800,000, which in the grand scheme is not very much money."
Nowakowski begs to differ how functional $28 million is every single year to bid out large infrastructure projects in the City of Buffalo.
"I don't think that $28 million in capital funding goes far these days, and if we're going to keep up with these needs of our city, we have to be able to look forward and get this work done," Nowakowski added. "Not only do residents deserve to live in a city that's invested in, but ultimately when we don't, it spends and costs more money to replace."
A call was put out to the City Comptroller's Office, but WBEN received no call back.