Articles for J. Dale Shoemaker

Dec 20

2023

IDAs look to dish out housing tax breaks

This story was produced by Investigative Post and New York Focus and based on interviews with 30 lawmakers, officials, advocates, lawyers and developers, as well as a review of data and historical records. Gov. Kathy Hochul’s push for more housing has been interpreted by industrial development agencies as a green light to ramp up controversial tax breaks for developers. The state’s 107 IDAs have never been explicitly authorized to subsidize housing and some lawmakers say that’s for a reason: Housing creates few permanent jobs compared to the industrial and commercial projects the agencies were designed to support. When IDAs do[...]

Posted 4 months ago

Dec 4

2023

Poloncarz swaps one potential OTB critic for another

A recently-appointed director of the Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp.— expected to be a watchdog over the embattled gambling agency — has resigned.  State law prohibits public and political party officials from holding a license necessary to serve on the governing board of off-track betting corporations. That’s the law that prompted Jennifer Hibit — secretary of the Erie County Democratic Committee — to resign Monday from her position as Erie County’s representative on the board of the Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp., based in Batavia.  It’s unclear if the law is being applied uniformly.  Former OTB Board Chairman Richard Bianchi,[...]

Posted 5 months ago

Nov 30

2023

Tonawanda Senecas sue to halt pipeline

The major industrial park under construction in rural Genesee County has hit yet another roadblock. The Tonawanda Seneca Nation has filed a lawsuit in federal court against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and several officials, including Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, arguing that they violated several environmental laws in issuing a permit to the industrial park’s wastewater pipeline. The pipeline, which is being built by the Genesee County Economic Development Center through the federally managed Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge, required a right-of-way permit from the Fish and Wildlife Service. “We’re asking them to revoke that permit,” Chief Roger[...]

Posted 5 months ago

Nov 29

2023

North Collins supervisor holds out-of-town job

John Tobia, the supervisor of the Town of North Collins, recently started a new job. In a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts. Since October, Tobia has commuted between Boston and his small town of about 1,300, located about 25 miles south of Buffalo. He took the job a month before being re-elected, unopposed, to his third term as supervisor.  As vice president of regional operations for The Norfolk Companies, Tobia’s gone from North Collins anywhere from two to five days per week, he and the town attorney have said. That’s led some to worry that he’s away from the town too[...]

Posted 5 months ago

Nov 13

2023

State still spending money on Tesla factory

If you thought New York was done spending money on the Tesla’s factory in South Buffalo, think again. Documents obtained by Investigative Post under the Freedom of Information Law have revealed a $29 million fund that state officials have allowed Tesla to spend on various projects around the plant.  The state has so far allowed Tesla to spend $1.4 million of the fund. The money has been spent on a new boiler, a rotary screw air compressor and additional truck parking.  There’s another eight projects on the to-do list and $27.4 million available. Requested projects include a new cafeteria, an[...]

Posted 5 months ago

Nov 3

2023

More state money for embattled industrial park

The state is investing an additional $56 million in the STAMP industrial park to finance the completion of infrastructure projects that are the subject of legal and regulatory disputes. Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday announced that Genesee County Economic Development Center, the economic development agency constructing  STAMP, will receive $56 million for various infrastructure projects. They  include an on-site wastewater treatment facility and pump station, a nine-mile sewage transmission line, a water main, natural gas lines and road improvements. The Genesee County EDC has been building STAMP’s infrastructure for several years. Some of the work has run into legal or[...]

Posted 6 months ago

Oct 26

2023

OTB lurches toward ‘new era’

The Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. is entering a “new era,” its new board chair has claimed, a shift that could see the public gambling agency increase transparency and institute reforms. The OTB board of directors meeting Thursday marked the first time the group had met since state lawmakers in May fired the old board, ordered the 17 counties and cities that own the agency to appoint a new one, and instituted weighted voting, throwing control to densely populated, Democratically-controlled Erie and Monroe counties, along with Buffalo and Rochester. Those reforms came after more than four years of lawsuits, investigations[...]

Posted 6 months ago

Oct 19

2023

OTB shells out millions for lawyers and lobbyists

The Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. has shelled out nearly $2.2 million for an army of 19 law firms and lobbyists over the past five years in an effort to fend off investigators, lawmakers and plaintiffs. The spending has eaten into the profits sent to the 17 counties and cities that own the public gambling agency, including Erie, Niagara and Monroe counties and the cities of Buffalo and Rochester. From 2019, when expenses started to take off, through last year, spending on lawyers and lobbyists cut OTB’s revenue sharing to municipalities by 10 percent. While some spending could be expected,[...]

Posted 6 months ago
Investigative Post

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