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Council presses administration on 25% tax increase, deputy-mayor hires and shaky revenue assumptions
Summary
At a multi-hour Buffalo City Council budget hearing, members assailed the administration’s proposed 25% property-tax increase, pressed for proof of promised foundation funding for new deputy-mayor lines and demanded documentation for speculative revenue items including $100 million in collections estimates.
Buffalo City Council members spent several hours Tuesday questioning the administration’s proposed budget, repeatedly pressing officials for evidence behind a proposed 25% property-tax increase and for details on new executive staffing costs.
Council members said the package — which administrators say leaves the reorganization “budget neutral” overall — nonetheless includes higher salaries and new positions that residents will notice amid what councilors described as a $109 million structural deficit. “We were told that there were foundation dollars,” one council member said, “and I have looked in here — where exactly is that?”
The administration defended the reorganization and said many of the apparent increases are transfers from other departments and…
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