BUFFALO, NY (WKBW) — As Mayor Byron Brown exited City Hall Tuesday, after resigning to lead OTB, there are still questions about a potential fiscal crisis.
Brown said no but some city lawmakers say Buffalo could face a budget shortfall of more than $40 million.
“And there is no fiscal crisis in the City of Buffalo,” declared Brown.
During his last few moments in office as mayor, Brown told reporters the city is not facing a fiscal crisis. It’s a message he repeated to me last Friday when I asked him.
“There is no fiscal crisis. People are talking about crisis. It's wrongheaded talking,” Brown replied.
I took that question to a member of Buffalo's Fiscal Stability Authority – also known as the city control board.
"People need to realize that there isn't a crisis now, but we have to work hard to make sure there isn't one going in the future,” Fred Floss stated.
Floss, Control Board Member/Secretary, told me he met late Tuesday morning with common council members as they all keep a close watch on a potential budget gap.
"So the control board says prudent budgeting says, let's put together a gap plan. That's that $40 million on the other hand, if things come in as expected, then it's going to be around $10 to $12 million,” Floss explained.
Now Floss told me next year's city budget looks to be balanced, but it's those out years that the fiscal stability authority is concerned with – years two, three, and four.
“He left them in good shape. We have a bigger tax base than we did. We have community services and things that happened during his watch, so overall, we're in a much better place than we were when he came here,” reflected Floss
When Brown took over in 2006 the control board was in hard status. By 2012, it turned into an advisory board.
“We're not we're not in the shape like we were when I took over. When I took over, there was no rainy-day fund if now a $43 million rainy-day fund when I took over, we were just up against the city's constitutional taxing limit,” Brown stated.
But Floss told me that for the last five to six years the board has warned the city to raise property taxes. I asked Brown about that last Friday, and he disagreed.
“I was mayor in 2006. The tax rate right now is lower than it was in 2005, so our tax policy was correct,” replied Brown.
Floss explained the control board is concerned about other revenue streams for the city.
“Obviously the casino revenue, because that compact hasn't been signed yet, but that's money that eventually will come to the city. Marijuana has not worked out the way everyone thinks, so we need to make sure that if that doesn't come in on schedule that we take care of that, and then again, we're looking at things like sales tax. Are sales taxes going to continue to grow the way they are? Are they going to slow down as the economy changes?” Floss noted.
On his final day in office, Brown said he believes he's leaving the city in good shape.
“Buffalo will be just fine. If everyone does what they're supposed to do, Buffalo will be just fine,” Brown described.
You can find more on the transition from Brown to Scanlon in the video below and read more here.
