"Motion is approved as amended, second by council member Nowakowski, with council member Wyatt in the negative," acting Council President Bryan Bollman said from the council dais.
With that six to one vote, $110 million is approved for the city of Buffalo's 2025 capital budget. It invests in things like maintenance and repairs to various community centers infrastructure and a project for Buffalo public schools to have a building at Buffalo State University.
The capital budget drew concerns from City Comptroller Barbara Miller Williams, who said it would exceed the city's debt cap. The sole member to vote against the proposal was Rasheed Wyatt, who is also running for mayor.
He said it's financially irresponsible to approve it in light of anticipated issues with the much larger fiscal budget.
"We can't continue to have missteps. As I mentioned, the controller has told me that we have 25 million [dollars] that we've already bonded for that's still outstanding that we're paying interest on. That doesn't make sense," Wyatt said. "This is affecting the taxpayers in the city of Buffalo. We have dollars and interest rates that were the interest that we're paying on, money that we're not even using."
Supporters of the capital budget, like acting Council President Bryan Bollman said these various projects are needed investments, and if you factor in those that are reimbursable, doesn't hit the debt cap too hard.
"We're taking everything seriously, but we have to balance that and make difficult decisions," said Bollman. "And honestly, we have to balance fixing our roads, fixing our sidewalks, fixing our community centers, and investing in the city of Buffalo and our infrastructure."
$24 million is slated to build out Buckham Hall at Buffalo State for Da Vinci High School. While the city does not run BPS, they share bank accounts, and the district is unable to take out certain bonds without the help of the city.
The project is eligible for up to 97% reimbursement, but Majority Leader Leah Halton-Pope said the exact percentage will have to be hammered out between Buffalo Public Schools and the State Education Department later.
"That's a question for the state and the Buffalo Public Schools. It's an agreement that they have. They do have something in writing. It's 50 years of precedent behind them, so it's not unheard of," Halton-Pope said. "The question that the comptroller raised they were real, and I'm grateful that she even asked those and has sounded the alarm on those items. Knowing that we're not going over the cap and clarifying that these are three different pots was what's really important."
The much larger city fiscal budget, which is projected to have a gap somewhere between $15 and $40 million, is due in the spring.
