The financial effects of Covid-19 are on the minds of Mayor Byron W. Brown and the Common Council as Buffalo lawmakers begin deliberating Brown’s $32.9 million capital budget proposal for 2021.
The spending plan is within the city’s budget cap and includes approximately $15.1 million in new bond sales and about $17.8 million in bond funds that were previously approved but were unsold in 2020 because of Covid-19 disruptions, Brown said in the proposal he filed with the Council this month. The 2020 capital budget was $25.3 million.
“The Council has received the mayor’s proposed capital budget. We will deliberate publicly, as we would normally, on his request, keeping in mind the current financial restraints of the city,” said Council President Darius G. Pridgen.
About two-thirds of 2021 capital spending plan will be invested in citywide infrastructure projects and cultural, parks and recreational facilities. That includes $10.9 million, up from $9.3 million in 2020, in infrastructure projects like repairs to streets and sidewalks. Part of the reason for the increase is to catch up on projects that were deferred last spring as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, Brown said.
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The capital plan does not rely on state or federal infrastructure funds, but the city is prepared to start a list of shovel-ready projects should resources become available, according to the proposal. Examples include repairs like rehabbing the Ohio Street Lift Bridge and streetscape projects, including paving, striping, landscaping, bike lane creation and traffic calming. Implementing the shovel-ready projects may have an impact on the capital spending plan, but it is premature to determine how and to what extent, Brown said in the proposal.
The 2021 proposal includes $10 million on projects, up from about $6 million in 2020, at facilities like the Buffalo Museum of Science, Buffalo and Erie County Naval & Military Park, Buffalo Zoo, Buffalo History Museum, Shea’s Performing Arts Center, Riverside Rink, Sahlen Field and Cazenovia and Broderick parks.
Many of the institutions, which had relied on steady revenues from admission fees or capital campaigns, were faced with financial difficulties or reduced or nonexistent crowds due to Covid-19 and “were forced to avail themselves of the capital budget process,” Brown said in the proposal.
Other recommendations in the 2021 plan include:
- $7.9 million for community safety buildings and equipment.
- $500,000 for citywide demolitions and code compliance.
- $220,000 for community centers.
- $800,000 for City Hall restoration and enhancements.
- Another $107,000 for improvements to the Council Chambers.
- $1.5 million for Department of Public Works vehicles.
- $1 million for improvements to the East Side Transfer Station.
The City Charter gives the Council until Dec. 15 to act on Brown's proposal, but under Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s Covid-19 “pause” order the Council can take more time, according to representatives of the city’s Law Department and Clerk’s Office.
The city has been reeling financially already due to Covid-19. The current $519 million operating budget for the year that began July 1 contains $65 million in federal pandemic aid that has yet to be approved by Congress.
The budget also has $11 million in revenue from Seneca Nation casino money, which has been stalled in a legal dispute.
There’s also a “temporary” $20 million cut, out of $98 million, in state aid to help Albany cope with the pandemic.
And Buffalo borrowed $25 million to close out the $509 million 2019-20 budget.
