Categories for DailyPost

Jan 25

2022

How a stadium can benefit the community

Published by

This is the first of a three-day series in our continuing in-depth coverage of issues related to a proposed stadium for the Buffalo Bills. Before the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers broke ground last summer on a new arena, the team’s owners, elected officials and civic groups made certain the $1.8 billion project would benefit the entire community. In September 2020, the parties signed a community benefits agreement, or CBA, that outlined who would get jobs and contracts during and after construction, how much those jobs would pay, what the project would look like, and how the city and its residents[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Jan 25

2022

The Pegulas should pay up

Published by

Note: A version of this column first appeared in the current issue of Buffalo Spree. It’s been updated to reflect recent developments. Let’s suppose a company wanted to build a factory in Buffalo. The plant would be used only 10 times a year.  It wouldn’t employ many people, and a fair share of its front-line workers would suffer injuries that would haunt them later in life. The factory owner is wealthy – a billionaire, in fact – and his business highly profitable. Nevertheless, the owner demands that taxpayers provide hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies to build his factory.[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Jan 24

2022

Another high-tech miss for Genesee County

Published by

Another tech giant with big microchip expansion plans is bypassing New York, this time for Ohio.  Intel Corp. announced on Friday plans to invest at least $20 billion to develop amicrochip manufacturing complex  in Jersey Township, outside of Columbus. Company officials said the plant will employ 3,000. Construction is expected to begin later this year, with production expected by the end of 2025.  Intel’s CEO Pat Gelsinger said the project is part of the company’s plans to invest $100 billion to build up to eight microchip factories on the Ohio campus by 2030. The project is being billed as the[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Jan 21

2022

Eye-catching public pensions 

Published by

Working for a public school system in New York State tends to pay well. So does being retired from one. Teachers and administrators who retired last year left with an average pension of  $73,552 annually. That was up about $2,500 from the previous year.  The figures reflect teachers and administrators who put in at least 30 years and worked outside of New York City.  Retirees from Western New York averaged $63,060. That placed WNY in the middle of the pack of nine regions around the state. Tops was Long Island, with an average pension of $94,108 per year. Pensions for[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Jan 20

2022

A lack of urgency on Bills stadium

Published by

There’s been talk lately from the Buffalo Bills and government officials that time is running out to decide on a new stadium for the team.  It’s worth noting, however, that a committee was put together at Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s behest to consider stadium options – eight years ago.  It only met once. Eight years ago. The group wasn’t lacking in clout. Notable New Stadium Working Group members included U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz, LP Ciminelli Chairman Louis Ciminelli, Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy, Empire State Development Corp. President Kenneth Adams and Kathy Hochul,[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Jan 19

2022

Enck: Test for “forever chemicals”

Published by

A former top EPA official is calling for the monitoring of members of Buffalo’s Burmese community because of their consumption of fish contaminated with so-called “forever chemicals.” Judith Enck is responding to an Investigative Post story published in September. The story, ‘More Danger Lurking in the Water,” covered a state and federal study of fishermen who eat their local catches.  All of the fishermen tested had elevated levels of the toxin known as PFOS, one in a class of chemicals known as PFAS, but the highest were found in Burmese citizens, who make up one of Western New York’s largest immigrant[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Jan 17

2022

The hidden costs of housing the Bills

Published by

There was a time when Erie County made money from Buffalo Bills games in Orchard Park.  From the opening of the football stadium in 1973 through 1997, the county collected millions of dollars from parking, concessions and the sale of stadium naming rights. No more.  Erie County in 1998 made major concessions that gave all the revenue from parking, concessions and naming rights to the Bills.  The county and New York State also agreed to take on a host of expenses previously covered by the Bills, ranging from stadium maintenance to the cost of ushers and ticket takers. The bottom[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Jan 17

2022

Ortt’s failing environmental report card

Published by

Few in the state Legislature protect the environment as poorly as Senate Minority Leader Robert Ortt, according to one leading ecological advocacy group. Environmental Advocates Action gave Ortt its 2021 “Oil Slick Award” for his voting record. The group, a lobbying and advocacy outfit, annually “honors” officials whose positions they deem most harmful.   According to Peter Iwanowicz, executive director of Environmental Advocates NY, Ortt’s “extreme anti-environmental voting record should make him an outcast, not the Senate minority leader.” Ortt, R-North Tonawanda, refused an interview, but his spokesman, Andrew Dugan, told Investigative Post that the minority leader supports “sensible” policy positions.[...]

Posted 2 years ago
Investigative Post

Get our newsletters delivered to your inbox * indicates required

Newsletters *