Jul 28
2025
Reform gives way to greed at OTB
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Before I get to what I’m reading, allow me to expand on a story I edited last week: A pay raise already for Byron Brown.
As I wrote in my newsletter yesterday, I’ve written once, maybe twice that Brown has been doing a better job than his predecessor, Henry Wojtaszek, at the Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. Admittedly, it’s a very low bar to clear.
Then came last week.
Dale Shoemaker reported that Brown got his board of directors to give him a $8,850 raise, bringing his salary to $303,850. Never mind that he’s already the highest paid OTB administrator in the state, or that he’s scheduled to get a $10,000 raise come January.
No, rank-and-file employees were getting a 3 percent raise, so it’s only fair that management gets one, too. Right? Never mind that Wojtaszek for years was given raises hand over fist without extra money for the working stiffs.
Brown’s senior staff also got 3 percent raises. Apparently a $190,000 salary isn’t good enough for Steve Casey, his chief of staff, or Scott Kiedrowski, chief operating officer. Kiedrowski, the guy getting sued over allegations of sexual harassment and found helping himself to $27,000 in free food and booze.
A pay raise? How about a pink slip?
The outrages didn’t stop with the pay raises. The OTB board, at Brown’s recommendation, hired Michael Flaherty, Jr. as general counsel. His salary: $180,000.
Brown, as the former mayor of Buffalo, knows the going rate for government attorneys. It’s not $180,000, not for a small shop like the OTB. Cavette Chambers, the city’s top attorney, earns $146,096 and oversees a much larger operation.
Suffice to say, OTB, Brown’s reforms notwithstanding, remains home to overpaid, unqualified bureaucrats.
The strike by state prison guards is over, but not its effects.
The Marshall Project reports prisons remain understaffed — 3,000 Nation Guard members are working at 34 facilities — and many programs and services remain suspended.
For incarcerated people, the lingering dysfunctions from the strike run the gamut from frustrating to life-threatening.
Here’s a reminder what a mistake building the new Bills stadium in Orchard Park is, via this gift link from The New York Times:
In North America, 37 projects of at least $1 billion, each linked to teams in the five major sports leagues, are in various stages of planning, according to a white paper published by ROAR, the bank RBC and the sports agency Klutch Group. And leases at 40 stadiums are expected to expire from 2030 to 2039, offering opportunities for redevelopment. Together, they represent roughly $100 billion in potential sports-adjacent mixed-use developments.
Meanwhile, here, landowners near the new Bills stadium are finding it tough to find buyers.
In related news, the Bills, like all NFL teams, are taking in a ton of money from national television contracts.
Some folks are calling for the state to see if another tenant can be found for the huge factory built for Tesla with taxpayer dollars. I get the sentiment, but I think it’s wishful thinking.
Western New York was Ground Zero for the Manhattan Project and we have the radioactive waste to show for it. Dan Telvock reported on it for us years ago and The Buffalo News has an update: The feds have fanned out across Erie and Niagara counties with radioactive detection devices looking for hotspots.
Buy your tickets now for our July 31 benefit concert
Columbia University has capitulated to Trump, agreeing to pay a $200 million ransom, er, fine, in exchange for regaining access to federal research grants.
Trump’s visit to Scotland to open a new golf course of his is costing taxpayers an estimated $10 million. Since taking office in January, he’s golfed an average of one out of every four days at an estimated cost to taxpayers of $60 million.
The Trump administration has approved the merger between Paramount and Skydance after considerable groveling by the former. You know, the $30-million-plus settlement, or “big fat bribe” as Stephen Colbert put it, paid in cash and advertising by CBS to Trump and the subsequent pledge by Skydance to produce unbiased news and stay away from DEI initiatives. The merged studios will be overseen by rich kid David Ellison, who appears to be in over his head. I hope he fails.
Suffice to say, he won’t be heeding the words of CBS legend Edward R. Murrow.
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