Buffalo bed tax, parking ramp sale could be in final state budget

Hochul, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, D-Bronx, and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, D-Yonkers, were close to finalizing at least the framework of a budget, which was due April 1. If a deal were struck, lawmakers could start passing bills as soon as Monday.

“The process is closing down,” Hochul told reporters during a press briefing on Friday night.

Hochul indicated agreement was reached on several of her top proposals: a prohibition on student cellphone use in schools; the involuntary commitment of the mentally ill to a hospital against their wishes; prosecution-favored changes to the discovery process in criminal justice cases; and a ban on the use of masks in cases of harassment.

And Hochul’s plans to send inflation-weary New Yorkers tax rebate checks of up to $500, expand child tax credits up to $1,000, offer middle-class tax cuts up to $1 billion and offer free school lunches appeared to be on their way to approval.

close up to five state prisons are also a possibility; it had been in the budget proposals of both the Assembly and Senate.

In Buffalo, where the city faces a budget deficit in the tens of millions, Mayor Christopher Scanlon proposed the hotel occupancy or bed tax and sale of parking lots to a state-approved Buffalo Parking and Mobility Authority, as well as a property tax increase of 8%. Scanlon, a Democrat who took over as mayor following the departure last fall of Mayor Byron Brown, needs state approval for the bed tax and sale of the parking ramps. Both have been proposed in bills sponsored by Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, D-Buffalo, one of the more influential lawmakers in the State Capitol.

A person with knowledge of the situation told The Buffalo News on Friday night that it was more likely than not that the final state budget would include both the 3% bed tax and the sale of the parking ramps to a newly created authority. The city was likely to receive the $5 million increase it got last year from the state’s Aid and Incentives to Municipalities or AIM, program, which gave the city a total of $166 million.

On Friday evening, during a press briefing, Hochul was asked about Scanlon’s proposals and what the budget would do to address Buffalo’s deficit.

“I will say that I know that Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes has enormous influence in this building and she has been a champion for this – this issue has come up,” said Hochul, who lives in the City of Buffalo and faces a re-election next year. “It’s just not resolved at this time.”

On Saturday, Peoples-Stokes told The News that the sale of the parking lots could bring in an immediate $26 million and consistent revenue in future years.

“Rather than taxing or laying off so many people that it negatively impacts the service to the constituents that I serve, it will be a less of an impact,” Peoples-Stokes said, adding that there will be an impact no matter what due to the deficit. “This will reduce the likelihood of that gap negatively impacting the citizen base.”

Asked if residents of the city should expect the revenue streams to be in the budget, the majority leader said Heastie and Hochul are supportive of the revenue plans but noted that she cannot control what happens in the Senate. State Sen. Sean Ryan, D-Buffalo, who is running against Scanlon in the Democratic primary, did not comment through a spokesperson.

The city bed tax, which Brown proposed last year without success, would join an existing 13.75% Erie County bed tax.

Sen. April Baskin, D-Buffalo, issued a news release Friday saying that Scanlon had urged city residents to call her office to pressure her into supporting the proposals for the parking ramps and bed tax. Baskin, a first-year senator who previously chaired the Erie County Legislature, said she made two attempts to reach Scanlon but could not reach him.

“Now it appears that some believe, including acting Mayor Scanlon, that a single state senator has more power to solve the gaping hole in the city budget than the very same elected officials who are directly responsible for passing it,” Baskin said. “This perception is not only patently false, but also unfortunate as local leaders – elected by residents to serve and inform them – are misrepresenting the real issues to their constituents.”

Baskin, referring to Scanlon as the “acting mayor,” said his proposals were based on speculative ideas that would “NOT fill the current budget hole.”

“I have never said I am opposed to the acting mayor’s proposals,” Baskin said. “I have consistently stated that I have questions, which to this day remain unanswered. As responsible leaders, we are not only allowed to ask questions, but we are obligated to ask them. That’s how democracy flourishes. Perhaps if elected officials had asked more questions instead of shifting blame, we wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place. It’s time to crunch realistic numbers, not rely on magical thinking.”

On Jan. 21, Hochul unveiled a $252 billion executive budget that focused on affordability and public safety. A joint legislative budget panel held a series of hearings over the next month to gather input on the spending plan. Heastie continually told reporters that the budget negotiations would be far easier if not for the inclusion of policy proposals in the governor’s budget.

Hochul can include policy proposals in her budget plans because in 2004, the state’s top court, the Court of Appeals, handed the governor more leverage in budget talks. In recent years, governors have used that leverage to put more policy issues into the budget.

In 2025, Hochul’s policy proposals in the budget included proposed changes to the legal discovery process – the prosecution’s sharing of evidence with the defense – under the argument that too many cases are being dismissed over technicalities. Under reforms that took effect on Jan. 1, 2020, prosecutors must disclose 21 different types of evidence to the defense within 20 days of arraignment for jailed defendants or 35 days for defendants who are not in custody. Hochul warned she would not sign off on a budget without the discovery changes, which have drawn fire from the defense bar.

Another Hochul policy proposal in the budget would lower the standard to involuntary commit the mentally ill. Right now, a person needs to present an imminent threat to themselves or others to be involuntary committed. Under Hochul’s plan, it would allow for the commitment of people who lack the mental capacity and willingness to have clothing, food, shelter and mental care. The governor has also proposed allowing nurse practitioners to have the power to involuntary commit a person. The proposal stemmed from subway crimes last year, including an incident in which a woman was set on fire on a train in Brooklyn.

Another policy proposal in the budget, the cellphone ban for students, is seen as a way to keep children from kindergarten through 12th grade focused and distraction free. The mask ban has come in the wake of demonstrations by masked individuals who have engaged in harassment and antisemitism on college campuses.

On Thursday, both houses of the State Legislature passed their eighth “extender” bill to fund state operations through Tuesday in the absence of a budget.

“It’s time we get this done,” Sen. Thomas O’Mara, R-Big Flats, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee who represents part of Allegany County, told colleagues. “I’ll be supporting this extender today but I don’t know that I will be in the future, giving no signs of progress. Perhaps we need the pressure of a government shutdown to get people off the dime and to actually come to a resolution on this budget.”

“My expectations have been wrong for three weeks,” Ryan said Thursday after session ended. “But it looks like we got all the non-budget issues out of the way and now we can start talking about the budget.”