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Dec 3

2020

City Hall spending on police has skyrocketed

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The Buffalo Police Department’s budget has grown at three times the pace of other city services since Mayor Byron Brown took office in 2006, an increase fueled largely by the cost of health insurance and pension payments for current and retired cops. The city spends 54 percent more on police than it did 15 years ago. Meanwhile, spending across all other city departments has increased just 17 percent. That’s less than two-thirds the rate of inflation. In inflation-adjusted dollars, the city’s spending on police has effectively defunded other city services.  The city spends less today than it used to on[...]

Posted 4 years ago

Nov 30

2020

Podcast: Funding judicial campaigns

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Ken Kruly and Geoff Kelly discuss the self-funding practices of local judicial candidates. They also talk about the latest in the Mark Grisanti saga: an investigation by the state Commission on Judicial Ethics into Grisanti’s handling of a 2018 case argued by attorneys who owed him money.  

Posted 4 years ago

Nov 27

2020

Heaney discusses WNY economy on ‘Pressroom

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David Lombardo, host of The Capitol Pressroom, interviews Jim Heaney about his recent story on the pandemic’s impact on the Buffalo Niagara economy. Heaney’s reporting found the local economy employs fewer people than it has in at least 30 years.  

Posted 4 years ago

Nov 23

2020

Brown’s prospects for a 5th term as mayor

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Editor’s note: This is an updated version of a column that published in the current issue of Buffalo Spree. It wasn’t long after Byron Brown was re-elected to a fourth term that talk started circulating around City Hall of a “Drive for Five.” As in, a fifth term. Talk quieted down, at least until the mayor held a fundraiser Oct. 5 at 500 Pearl Street, owned by none other than Carl Paladino’s Ellicott Development. Tickets started at $600, and a table of 10 cost $10,000 and came with a half-hour of schmooze time with Brown. Does the fundraiser signal the[...]

Posted 4 years ago

Nov 18

2020

Missing persons report for city’s control board

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Editor’s note: The original version of this column incorrectly reported on events related to actions by the Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority involving the city’s four-year budget plan. The source of the errors: The control board, on its website, incorrectly labeled videos of  special meetings held on June 16 and July 20. Investigative Post based its reporting in part on those videos, which resulted in a conflating of events. The text below has been revised accordingly. A control board spokesman said the agency was attempting to correct the errors on its website. Three times in the past five months, the city’s state-imposed[...]

Posted 4 years ago

Nov 17

2020

Podcast: Williams campaign donations

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Ken Kruly and Geoff Kelly discuss the current topic of Money In Politics, large campaign contributions by Jon, Jerome and Jeffrey Williams of Niagara County. Together, they’re among the largest political donors in Western New York, and they mostly favor Republican candidates and committees.

Posted 4 years ago
Investigative Post