Tag: Subsidies

Jan 25

2022

How a stadium can benefit the community

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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

Dec 1

2021

iPost sues to obtain Bills stadium studies

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Investigative Post filed a lawsuit in state Supreme Court today seeking the release of two studies that are central to negotiations involving a proposed new stadium for the Buffalo Bills. Both studies were commissioned by Pegula Sports and Entertainment, which is affiliated with the Bills, and shared with Empire State Development, the state’s primary economic development agency.  One study considered the feasibility of building a new stadium or renovating Highmark Stadium, the cost of doing so, and the possible location of a new venue. The other study evaluated the economic impact of the Bills and other sports and entertainment holdings[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Dec 17

2020

Firms left behind in quest for pandemic aid

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Nearly 19,000 businesses in Western New York received a federal loan to help them through the pandemic. Laythanette Shine’s firm wasn’t one of them. Shine’s business, USA Occupational Services on Jefferson Avenue, provides drug and DNA testing services and background checks for employers. There’s a memorial in the front window to the man who helped her set up the office, one the earliest victims of COVID-19 in Buffalo.  Shine couldn’t access the Paycheck Protection Program because her business is a sole proprietorship with insufficient profitability. Those factors are common for new small businesses, but disqualified her from getting aid. She[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Dec 16

2020

Popular nonprofits obtained pandemic aid

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Some 1,100 local nonprofits received federal aid to soften the pandemic’s economic blow, and the list of recipients reads like a who’s who of prominent cultural, medical, religious and educational institutions.  The Chautauqua Institution and Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. Mercy Flight and the Erie County Medical Center. The Diocese of Buffalo and The Chapel at Crosspoint. Nichols School and Nardin Academy. Even a sovereign state, the Seneca Nation of Indians, received a $1.5 million loan under the federal Paycheck Protection Program. Nonprofits with religious affiliations received the most number of loans, 406. That’s more than one-third of the 1,080 loans extended[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Dec 15

2020

Sliver of companies got half of pandemic aid

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A lot of businesses received forgivable loans from the federal government to help them through the pandemic. To be exact, 18,768 in the eight counties of Western New York. The loans were worth $2.2 billion, altogether. But a fraction of the companies — some 5 percent — received about half that sum.  Two businesses got the maximum $10 million loan allowed under the Paycheck Protection Program: Ferguson Electric and the Buffalo Medical Group. New Era Cap, widely criticized by public officials earlier this year for taking PPP money then laying off 117 employees, received the third-largest loan, $8.4 million. Other[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Dec 14

2020

Doctors and lawyers cash in on pandemic aid

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The final numbers are in: the federal government poured more than $2 billion into the local economy this spring and summer in an effort to blunt the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. About 19,850 for-profit companies and nonprofit organizations in the region’s eight counties received $2.4 billion in loans under the Paycheck Protection Program. The loans, convertible to grants, ranged from $10 million to less than $1,000. As a group, no one secured more money than doctors. Other top recipients include restaurants, lawyers, car dealers, skilled nursing facilities and construction contractors. Three recipients received $10 million, the maximum allowed[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Aug 23

2020

Buffalo Billion audit: shock and ugh

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The audit released Friday by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli told us a lot of things we already knew or strongly suspected: the Cuomo administration failed to assess the value of high-tech projects like the Tesla plant in South Buffalo both before and after the investment of tax dollars, and largely kept the public and press in the dark in between. But the audit added a lot of detail and included some new eye-popping findings, two in particular: The Tesla project fell way short — way, way short, actually — of the state’s desired return on investment. The audit said Empire[...]

Posted 4 years ago

Apr 25

2019

Tesla reports big losses

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Tesla reported first quarter losses Wednesday of $702 million. What’s worse, Tesla reported a big drop in its solar business. Solar panel installations dropped by more than one third during the first quarter. Installations are down five-fold since peaking in 2015. Its market share has tumbled in recent years from 33 to 9 percent. All this is bad news for Tesla’s plant in South Buffalo, which was built and equipped at taxpayer expense. A slump in solar sales lessens demand for the products produced at the plant. That, in turn, could make it tough for Tesla to create all the jobs[...]

Posted 5 years ago
Investigative Post

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