Categories for Analysis

Feb 16

2023

Tesla a target of unionizing effort

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The union behind the successful effort to organize Starbucks, both here and nationally, is trying to do likewise at Tesla’s plant in South Buffalo. But, much like with Starbucks, organizers are squaring off with an employer with a history of aggressively fending off unionizing efforts. To wit, just one day after Tesla Workers United announced its organizing drive, Tesla fired 30 employees at its Buffalo plant, including some members of the union organizing team. They were dismissed via email Wednesday evening. “I strongly feel this is in retaliation to the committee announcement and it’s shameful,” Arian Berek, a fired worker[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Feb 6

2023

Blizzard looting mostly in white neighborhoods

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More than 100 businesses were looted during the “Blizzard of ’22.” While press and social media accounts focused on theft on the city’s East Side, an Investigative Post analysis found most of the looting took place elsewhere in the city and in the suburbs. Investigative Post identified 108 looted businesses, using posts on social media and reports we obtained  under the Freedom of Information Law from police departments in Buffalo and the first-ring suburbs of Amherst, Cheektowaga and the Town of Tonawanda. About 40 of the 108 businesses targeted were on the East Side. Stores on Broadway, Bailey Avenue and[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Jan 26

2023

‘Weak’ relocation clause in Bills’ lease

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The Buffalo Bills would have an easier time abandoning their new stadium in Orchard Park for another city than any of the other teams playing in subsidized stadiums built for NFL franchises in recent years, Investigative Post has found. Four NFL stadiums have been built with public assistance since 2014: Levi’s Stadium for the San Francisco 49ers, U.S. Bank Stadium for the Minnesota Vikings, Mercedes-Benz Stadium for the Atlanta Falcons, and Allegiant Stadium for the Las Vegas Raiders. Like the Bills draft lease, those agreements require teams in those stadiums to pay back the taxpayer’s investment in the event they[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Jan 23

2023

Another subsidized tenant for STAMP

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A remote industrial park in Genesee County will soon have its second tenant: Edwards Vacuum, a company that manufactures equipment used in the semiconductor industry. But luring Edwards Vacuum, a British company, to the Science, Technology and Advanced Manufacturing Park, or STAMP, has come at a cost: $39.2 million in taxpayer subsidies. That’s in exchange for 600 jobs over the next decade, with 343 being hired in the next three years. And that’s just the beginning. In addition to $22 million in subsidies from Empire State Development, New York’s economic development arm, and $17.2 million in property and sales tax[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Jan 19

2023

Tax breaks for fast food in Niagara Falls

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A fast-food franchise developer is looking to bring an A&W and Moe’s Southwest Grill to downtown Niagara Falls — and is seeking $172,000 in tax breaks to do it. IDA subsidies are available only to projects that would not be economically feasible otherwise. But the developer told Investigative Post he doesn’t need the tax breaks from the Niagara County Industrial Development Agency to proceed. “This is a little help, but we are able to do it without it as well,” said Muhammad Shoaib, the franchisee and developer. The subsidies he’s seeking have also drawn criticism. “Business subsidies are bad, but[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Jan 5

2023

Putting legislative pay raises in perspective

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Updated: 11:18 a.m. State legislators were generous with themselves beyond the $32,000 a year raise they approved last month. The legislation also included loopholes that good government groups are characterizing as weak on ethics and conflicts of interest. What’s more, the raises, justified by supporters as compensation for inflation, far exceed increases in the cost of living. Reinvent Albany compared the provisions of the legislation with recommendations made in 2018 by a state compensation commission that considered pay raises for legislators, among other state elected officials. “The bottom line is that the law giving the Legislature a huge pay raise[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Dec 13

2022

Maybe the feds can fix Buffalo police

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The U.S. Justice Department has investigated more than 80 problem-plagued police departments and correctional facilities over the past 25 years and mandated remedial action to correct issues it encountered in more than half of them. Pittsburgh was the Justice Department’s first target. In 1997, the DOJ and the city signed a “consent decree” — a binding agreement — under which the city adopted numerous police reforms, including an “early warning system” to track officers who exhibited a tendency toward excessive use of force or racial discrimination. A 2012 consent decree between Seattle and the DOJ — prompted by a pattern[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Nov 29

2022

More subsidies for high-end apartments

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Industrial development agencies were initially in the business of creating or retaining jobs. Their mission these days includes finding new uses for old buildings. The Amherst IDA last month approved $1.88 million in tax breaks for a project that does neither. The planned construction of apartments and retail space at 5877 Main Street in Williamsville will create only two permanent jobs. And the older building that was located on the site — Milos Restaurant — is slated for demolition. A four-story building will go up in its place. The first floor will include Excuria Salon and Spa and retail space.[...]

Posted 2 years ago
Investigative Post