Jim Heaney

Jim Heaney is editor and executive director of Investigative Post. He was an investigative reporter with The Buffalo News from 1986 to 2011 and a reporter and editor with The Orlando Sentinel from 1980-86. His coverage over the years has focused on economic development, local and state government, politics, education, housing and transportation, and he was an early practitioner of computer-assisted reporting. Heaney has won more than 20 journalism awards and was a finalist for the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting.

Sep 15

2025

A tax subsidy that’s not funny

There are a lot of ways to look at New York’s tax credit program intended to keep film and television producers working in the Empire State. The tax credits are projected to total $920 million this year. The subsidy works out to an average of $65,000 per job. The return on investment: about $1 in tax revenue for every $3 in subsidy. Put another way, during the first three months of this year, the producers of Saturday Night Live received more tax breaks than anyone, some $21 million, or $83,000 per job. (To not be very funny, I might add.)[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Sep 8

2025

The Good (Tish James), the Bad (Trump) and the Ugly (Musk’s trillion dollar pay package)

I’ve long thought Attorney General Letitia James should be doing more to prosecute political corruption in New York. But I’ve got to hand it to her: She’s no slouch when it comes to Donald Trump, as detailed in a profile in the current edition of The Nation. “No attorney general in the country is battling President Donald Trump more proficiently—and drawing more of his fire—than James,” wrote The Nation. “James and her partner AGs have hit the president with a barrage of lawsuits that have temporarily halted some of his worst orders in the past seven months.” “In their quest[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Sep 2

2025

Podcast: Our economic development follies

The economy of Western New York, like those of most regions upstate, lags behind most of the nation. Government’s response, at both the local and state level, has been in large part to throw tax breaks and other subsidies at companies in an effort to attract or retain them. It hasn’t worked. In the interview below, Investigative Post Editor Jim Heaney discusses economic development with Greg LeRoy, executive director of Good Jobs First, a nonprofit that tracks subsidy programs across the nation. LeRoy is considered a leading expert in his field and is frequently quoted by Investigative Post. Here are[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Aug 25

2025

Let’s talk football: Terry Pegula’s yacht and brain damaged players

It turns out Terry Pegula owns a yacht valued at up to $100 million. Fox News reports the yacht “was custom-built and delivered in 2021 and is valued between $75 million and $100 million. From designer interiors, including Louis Vuitton and Gucci, the yacht offers a glass-sided spa pool, sauna, gym, cinema lounge and much more … The yacht is reportedly available to charter at around $500,000 per week.” The story notes that taxpayers are forking over $850 million to help build a new stadium for Pegula’s Bills. As if he needed the money. Today’s football heroes are tomorrow’s damaged[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Aug 25

2025

The coming duopoly at Channels 2 and 4

Editor’s mote: This story was updated on Sept. 1 My item last week about the pending purchase of Channel 2’s parent company by Channel 4’s parent company generated a lot of traffic and a fair amount of speculation and hand-wringing. Well, the deal went through last week and from what I’ve learned, there’s plenty of justification for continued hand-wringing. Alan Pergament of The Buffalo News wrote a good analysis on the local impact and The Washington Post produced an insightful analysis from a national perspective. Both are worth a read. (The Post story is a gift link.) Pergament wrote about[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Aug 18

2025

Bad news on the horizon for Channels 2 and 4

You could have read this Sunday if you subscribed to our free newsletters, sent Sunday and Wednesday. Sign up at this link. We’re facing the prospect of a merger involving the chain owners of Channels 2 and 4, who between them dominate the local TV news ratings. According to press reports, Nexstar, whose holdings include WIVB, is negotiating to acquire TEGNA (WGRZ) in a deal that would involve 264 stations nationally. Media consolidations are rarely a good thing, and the Buffalo market is likely to be ill-served by a Nexstar-TEGNA merger. Competition is likely to take a hit and a[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Aug 4

2025

Gaza: The most dangerous place in the world for kids

A Washington Post story last week focused on children killed during the war. The current body count is 18,500, a number The Post found to be credible and perhaps an undercount. A Palestinian child has been killed an average of one an hour since the onset of the war, prompting UNICEF to declare Gaza as the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. Wrote The Post: “Some were killed in their beds. Others while playing. Many were buried before they learned to walk.” Elsewhere, the Guardian reports that Israel has done the math and calculated what it[...]

Posted 4 months ago

Jul 28

2025

Reform gives way to greed at OTB

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[...]

Posted 4 months ago