Two of Acting Buffalo Mayor Chris Scanlon's solutions to address the city's fiscal crisis have seemingly cleared a major hurdle. A 3% Buffalo hotel bed tax and creation of a parking authority to sell four city-owned parking lots, is included in Governor Kathy Hochul's tentative budget, per Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie.
"I would say it's the two issues the city requested which was the establishment of the parking authority and the bed tax," Heastie said to reporters on Monday.
When asked if they're included in the tentative state budget?
"Yes," replied Heastie.
The legislation was first floated by Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes in consultation with Scanlon. It failed to find a sponsor in the state senate at the time, with both Buffalo-area state senators Sean Ryan and April Baskin expressing opposition to the proposals. Inclusion in a state budget package would override the need for such a sponsor.
"These two pieces of legislation that we sent to Albany are incredibly important," Scanlon said last week. "I can't overstate how important they are to our financial situation, and they will help us turn the corner financially."
That financial corner stands at around $70 million according to the acting mayor. He said the sale of the four parking ramps will generate "$40 million-$50 million initially," and then around a million dollars yearly.
The 3% hotel city tax would generate about $4 million-$5 million annually according to projections by Scanlon. It would also make Buffalo's hotel taxes the third highest in the nation, when combined with existing state and county taxes.
While a tentative deal on the state budget was announced by Hochul eight days ago, there has still been no formal vote by the state legislature.
