Articles for Mark Scheer

Aug 20

2021

The Brown-Paladino connection

Mayor Byron Brown has said that he doesn’t want controversial developer Carl Paladino’s support for his write-in campaign against Democratic primary winner India Walton. While fielding questions from reporters following his June 28 announcement that he would stage a write-in campaign, Brown encouraged reporters to research the subject because they would find that he and Paladino “are not close.” In fact, the two have fashioned a working, if not warm, relationship over the years. Paladino is close enough to the mayor that he confirmed to a WGRZ reporter that he spoke with Brown by telephone shortly after his primary defeat[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Jul 14

2021

Tax breaks approved for Falls project

Economic development officials in Niagara County have approved nearly $500,000 in tax breaks for a Buffalo developer seeking a total of $2.6 million in public subsidies to open a small event center and a brewery and restaurant in a “highly distressed” area of Niagara Falls. The Niagara County Industrial Development Agency’s board of directors voted Wednesday to authorize $457,000 in property, sales and mortgage tax abatements to support T.M. Montante’s $3.3 million redevelopment plans on Third Street in the Falls. The company has committed to creating 14 full-time jobs, mostly for bartenders, waitresses and cooks. With incentives totaling $2.6 million,[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Jul 13

2021

Why Tony Masiello is supporting Byron Brown

When Mayor Byron Brown announced his write-in campaign inside the Statler Terrace Room last month, he was surrounded by supporters that included one of Buffalo’s most recognizable political figures. As a fiery Brown pledged to press on despite losing the Democratic primary to India Walton, standing behind him, just to his right, was Anthony Masiello — the man Brown replaced as mayor 15 years earlier. In the weeks since Brown’s announcement, Masiello has made the local media rounds, offering his thoughts on the mayor’s race and, at times, acknowledging his support for Brown’s write-in campaign. “I talk to the mayor[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Jul 8

2021

Rich subsidies for low-wage jobs

Generating business growth in downtown Niagara Falls has proven to be a challenge for years. A state agency charged with job creation has adopted a unique approach, even by Western New York standards. The state-run USA Niagara Development Corp. gave Buffalo-based T.M. Montante Development four properties valued at nearly $1 million in the city’s Third Street business district. Now, as the company plans to renovate and reopen two Third Street buildings— one as a small event center and the other as a brewery and restaurant— state and county economic development officials are preparing to sweeten the pot with $1.7 million[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Jun 23

2021

More bad news on Buffalo Billion project

Updated at 2:15 p.m. At least 84, and perhaps as many as 175 employees assigned to downtown office space paid for with $55 million in Buffalo Billion funds have been told they’re losing their jobs. The funding was used to recruit IBM to establish a high-tech hub at Key Center that would employ 500 software engineers and other highly paid workers. IBM has not followed through on that pledge, employing a small but undetermined number of workers at the site. Instead, a portion of the space has been sublet to two call center operations. As previously reported by Investigative Post,[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Jun 6

2021

Senecas sue over Genesee industrial park

Efforts to develop a large industrial park in Genesee County using tens of millions of dollars from New York State’s Buffalo Billion program are facing a new challenge — a lawsuit filed by the Tonawanda Seneca Nation. In a lawsuit filed Friday in state Supreme Court in Genesee County, the Nation is challenging the findings of the Genesee County Economic Development Center that determined, following a formal environmental review, that plans for the development of Plug Power’s new hydrogen fuel facility at its industrial park in the Town of Alabama would have no adverse impact on the nation’s territory as[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Jun 5

2021

State relents, releases Tesla jobs report

After several days of delay, the Cuomo administration has released an annual employment report filed by Tesla under the terms of the $950 million public investment in the company’s solar panel production facility in South Buffalo. Empire State Development Corp., which had denied several requests for a copy of the document from Investigative Post, responded Friday to an appeal filed following a denial of an earlier Freedom of Information Law request for the report that Tesla is required to file by May 31 of each year. ESD, which earlier this week issued a statement on the company’s job creation numbers[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Jun 2

2021

State withholding details on Tesla jobs

The Cuomo administration is refusing to release a new report on the number of people employed at the Tesla plant built with $950 million in taxpayer funds in South Buffalo. The Empire State Development Corp. says the report, due by May 31, was submitted, but the agency has refused to release it to Investigative Post. Instead, ESD issued a statement indicating that Tesla now has 1,000 workers at the Gigafactory in Buffalo — 460 short of the total the company promised to create under its original agreement with the state. According to ESD, Tesla currently employs 1,600 people statewide, although[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Articles for Mark Scheer

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