Articles for J. Dale Shoemaker

Nov 25

2024

A call for ‘top to bottom’ audit of OTB

Three good-government groups have called on State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli to conduct a “top-to-bottom” audit of Western Regional Off-Track Betting. With a leadership transition newly complete, the groups — Reinvent Albany, Common Cause and the League of Women Voters — say all of OTB’s activities should be audited. They include OTB’s “revenue and expenses, procurement, investment, management systems, governance, and public transparency and accountability,” the groups said. In a letter sent Monday, the groups said “golden parachutes for departing executives, nepotistic hiring, and an outsize salary for the incoming CEO” were of particular concern. The “golden parachute” refers to $299,000[...]

Posted 6 months ago

Nov 22

2024

OTB cuts payments to local governments

Pay raises and buyouts for executives are among the costs blamed for the Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. reducing its payments to local governments by $2.6 million this year. In 2023, OTB leaders said Thursday, the agency sent $10.25 million to the 15 counties and two cities that own it. This year, that amount decreased to $7.6 million. OTB did not specify how much the reduced payments will cost individual local governments. Erie County will be out an estimated $200,000. Officials did not fully explain the reduction Thursday, but cited personnel, legal and development costs. The drop follows a number[...]

Posted 6 months ago

Nov 21

2024

OTB hotel expansion delayed

Hotel at Batavia Downs. Photo by Garrett Looker A planned expansion of the Batavia Downs hotel is on hold, possibly for as much as a year, officials with Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. announced Thursday. Outgoing CEO Henry Wojtaszek said the agency put the 73-room addition on pause after two estimates solicited from Buffalo-based developers came in above expectations. The pause could last six months to a year, he said. According to Wojtaszek, both The Krog Group and Ciminelli Real Estate estimated the project would cost around $16 million. Both offers were far above what the agency had hoped to[...]

Posted 6 months ago

Nov 19

2024

Buffalo, Rochester fail transparency test

The cities of Buffalo and Rochester have received failing grades for a lack of transparency involving tax breaks given to the owners of old commercial buildings converted to new uses. The 485-a program is often used to retrofit office buildings into mixed uses that include housing and retail. The report by Good Jobs First found that the granting of the tax breaks is done by bureaucrats without any public review and the cities don’t readily disclose the award. The report, however, gave high grades to the industrial development agencies in the cities of Utica, Albany and Syracuse. Transparency improves public[...]

Posted 7 months ago

Nov 8

2024

City Hall: No more money for Braymiller Market

Braymiller Market in downtown Buffalo. Photo by Garrett Looker. The Buffalo Common Council is sending a new message to Braymiller Market, downtown’s struggling grocery store: If the business is going to fail, it better fail within the next year. That way, University Common Council Member Rasheed N.C. Wyatt said, the city can recoup the $561,000 it loaned the business last year. Under the terms of the forgivable loan, the store must stay open for two years to avoid repaying the city. “If we can get our $561,000 before he closes, let’s get our $561,000 back because I think that can[...]

Posted 7 months ago

Oct 24

2024

OTB hires two Brown lieutenants from City Hall

Byron Brown answers questions from reporters at Thursday’s OTB meeting. Photo by Garrett Looker. Steven Casey, a longtime aide to Byron Brown and a political operative whose consulting firm pleaded guilty to felony charges in 2021, was hired Thursday as the former mayor’s right-hand man at the Western Regional Off-Track Betting. The OTB board voted to hire Casey for one year as chief administrative officer and chief of staff under Brown, OTB’s new president and CEO. Casey will be paid $190,000. OTB will retain Scott Kiedrowski, OTB’s current No. 2, who is named in a lawsuit alleging sexual harassment and[...]

Posted 7 months ago

Oct 24

2024

Braymiller Market pays its delinquent taxes

Braymiller’s grocery includes a deli. Photo by Garrett Looker. It took two formal warnings from the Erie County Industrial Development Agency and the threat of losing a key tax break, but Braymiller Market owner Stuart Green paid his overdue city taxes Wednesday. Green’s $8,200 payment, half his annual bill, was nearly three months late and was at least the third time he’d missed the deadline for paying his city property tax, according to city records. Under the terms of a 2019 package of tax breaks, which totaled $765,000, Bryamiller is responsible for paying 20 percent of its tax bill. John[...]

Posted 7 months ago

Oct 22

2024

City loan has not stabilized Braymiller Market

Story updated 10:34 a.m. Oct. 24. A year after the City of Buffalo threw Braymiller Market a half-million dollar lifeline, the downtown grocery store continues to struggle financially. For a third year in a row, records show that owner Stuart Green is months behind on his city tax payments. That failure to pay $8,119 in taxes, half the annual bill, prompted the Erie County Industrial Development Agency to warn him Sept. 10 and again last week that the property tax abatement it granted him in 2019 could be revoked. On Wednesday, IDA leaders said they were prepared to begin the[...]

Posted 7 months ago