The Buffalo Common Council voted 7 to 2 to override Buffalo Mayor Brown’s veto on the council’s changes to the city’s budget timeline.
In July, the council approved amendments to a local law that would move the deadline for the mayor's proposed budget from May 1 to April 8 each year and extend the council’s deadline to approve or amend the budget from May 22 to May 26. The final budget adoption is required by June 8 each year.
In a letter to the Common Council dated August 30, Brown vetoed the move, stating that the changes create “an unnecessarily early and lengthy budget process.”
He also pointed out that the May 1 and May 22 deadlines have been in place since 1967 and that the Common Council has “consistently” been able to make alterations within that timeframe for over 50 years.
But the council secured a supermajority vote to override the veto, writing the new timeline and amendments into law.
Council President and South District representative Christopher Scanlon, and North District representative Joseph Golombek Jr. voted in the negative.
Majority Leader and Ellicott District representative Leah Halton-Pope sponsored the amendments along with University District councilmember Rasheed N.C Wyatt. Speaking with WBFO, Halton-Pope said the longer timeframe to review the mayor's proposed budget was needed.
"So traditionally, May 1 through the 22nd of May was all that councilmembers would have to receive the budget, to read through the budget, to communicate that you have workshops, you have hearings, etc, but it left very little time to have additional community dialogue in between there," Halton-Pope said.
The changes to the local law bring the city’s budget timeline closer to that of New York State’s, which has an April 1 deadline each year. But in his letter penned to the council, Brown said that the state has been known to miss this deadline, citing that as another reason he disapproved of the new timeline.
But Halton-Pope says that the city already knows what the state funding will be for the next few years - that funding has been flat for at least the last 12 years, with the only change being a $5 million increase in state aid (known as AIM funding) each year from 2024 through 2026 fiscal years.
"So we kind of have an idea of where we're going to be for the next couple of years at a minimum," said Halton-Pope. "This allows us to still plan based on what we're likely to get from from the state."
The city is staring down the barrel of a projected $40 million budget gap for the next fiscal year, and the council's amendments to the city charter also mandate the inclusion of a four-year financial plan to ensure sustainable fiscal practices and balanced budgets.
Halton-Pope says the measure is to ensure she and her fellow lawmakers can "stay on top" of how resources are being spent.
"Listen, we're your representative government. It's my job to make sure that I look out for constituents in the Ellicott District and the other eight council members are doing the same thing."
