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Home > Press Room > Press Releases > Mayor Brown's NYS Budget Testimony

Mayor Brown's NYS Budget Testimony

January 25, 2010                                                                                          
 
ALBANY—Mayor Byron W. Brown today traveled to Albany to present testimony to the New York State Joint Legislative Fiscal Committees regarding Governor David A. Paterson’s 2010-11 recommended State Budget.
 
“Over the past four years, my message to you has been simple and it remains so today, give us the tools and we will make Buffalo one of the best cities in the nation to live, work, raise a family and visit,” Mayor Brown said in his testimony. “The foundation that we have worked so hard over the past four years to solidify and prepare for future growth and investment must not be endangered by the loss of key state funding. I hope this testimony has convinced you of this fact and I wish you success in the budget deliberations ahead.”
 
In his testimony, the Mayor stressed the importance of the RESTORE NY program, which has been instrumental in revitalizing neighborhoods throughout the city.
 
“With the help of RESTORE funding and my decision to invest sizeable amounts of federal block grant and city general fund resources into our demolition program, we have been able to demolish over 2,500 blighted vacant structures and rehabilitate 591 structures since 2006,” said Mayor Brown.
 
The Mayor presented four key factors to transforming Buffalo to the joint legislative panel:
                   
  1. Extension of the RESTORE NY Program
  2. Preservation of funding for youth employment
  3. Restoration of a $3.4 million reduction in Buffalo’s efficiency grant, appropriated by the legislature in 2007-08 to aid Buffalo in its fiscal recovery and restoration of the $4.2 million cumulative year to year reduction of Buffalo’s AIM (Aid Incentives to Municipalities) funding.
  4. Sales tax sharing to be maintained.
 
These four points stress the importance of public programs in stimulating economic revitalization in the City of Buffalo, which has experienced one of the highest rates of vacant property in the nation with over 23,000 vacant units, many of which are blighted and unsalvageable.
 
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