With the Seneca Nation refusing to send checks for the state's share of casino cash to Albany, Niagara Falls continues to be squeezed fiscally because it's not getting its share. The city is now squeezing every dollar to put off a crisis. According to Mayor Paul Dyster, the city is simply spending less money for purposes like street repairs or block cleanups. To help boost revenues and reduce costs, Dyster says the city is selling land.
Niagara Falls owns around 600 properties across the city which it has to maintain. There is a list of 50 vacant lots on the city website, with a sale putting the property back on the tax rolls and allowing someone else to pay for maintenance. The mayor says he expects adjoining owners would be the most interested.
Across the city budget, Dyster says cuts are being made, including some services taxpayers had become accustomed to like more street repairs.
"Without casino revenues to augment that, it's roughly half what people are used to the last few years. We're still doing Clean Neighborhood Teams out there. But by comparison to what we were able to do when we had the ZOOM Program going, doing neighborhood cleanups using casino revenues, we're at maybe a third of the level of effort that we had," Dyster says.
Dyster says it isn't clear how much money is being held back by the impasse between Albany and the Seneca Nation but it's at least $60 million, a significant number with a city budget of $83 million.
The two sides are talking and the mayor hopes they come to an agreement before the city runs out of cash in the fall.
