Despite the City of Buffalo facing serious financial challenges, some elected officials are getting double-digit percentage pay raises and a judge has dismissed a lawsuit to try to block those salary increases.
This will cost taxpayers nearly a quarter million dollars a year, with nearly half of the extra money going to school board members whose stipends are nearly doubling.
The New York Coalition for Open Government sued the city, claiming that the common council didn't follow the city charter when creating a salary review commission that recommended the pay hikes.
State Supreme Court Justice Craig Hannah dismissed the lawsuit saying it wasn't filed within the four-month statute of limitations and said the process didn't violate open meetings laws.
It's something that Paul Wolf, attorney and president of the New York Coalition for Open Government, strongly disagrees with. Wolf will decide by the end of this month if he will appeal the decision.
