New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is set to propose her preliminary 2022 state budget today, and it’s looking less likely that it will include funding for a Buffalo Bills stadium. “Negotiations remain ongoing,” said a Hochul spokesperson when asked about the long-rumored $1.4 billion stadium, while Erie County executive Mark Poloncarz said, “We are not imminent to a deal.”
That does not, however, necessarily mean that Hochul won’t be looking to provide taxpayer money this year toward a Bills stadium, possibly a whole lot of it. As the Buffalo News’ Albany correspondent, Tom Precious, writes:
Pegula Sports & Entertainment can get its public financial support from Albany in many ways that would never see the light of day in the budget.
That’s because agencies and authorities and quasi-government entities have multiple avenues to a deal that don’t require any yes or no votes from the 213 members of the State Senate and Assembly.
Those “quasis,” which include the state-run Empire State Development corporation and local industrial development corporations, are often used to fund projects outside of the main state budget allocation process, notes state Sen. Liz Krueger. (ESD was the lead agency for the Brooklyn Nets and New York Islanders arenas, for starters.) And Hochul could also redirect money from existing pots of state money, like infrastructure or road funds, to help pay for Bills expenses.
But there’s an even easier way for the governor to evade legislative oversight, notes Precious, and that’s to simply leave the stadium out of her initial budget, then add it as a last-second amendment when it’s too late for the legislature to do much about it. Governors can legally amend their budget for up to 30 days, he notes, and often “controversial items are, for instance, suddenly thrust into an omnibus bill –— which Albany dubs ‘The Big Ugly’ — in the final hours before the budget is adopted with little or no time for anyone to actually read before adoption.”
Some believe that Hochul – given the pushback she is going to receive for potentially hundreds of millions of dollars for a lucrative NFL team owned by a billionaire – might want to slow down and not have a big package publicly hanging about for weeks and months for it to be picked apart and changed by critics of public subsidy stadium deals.
“I’d imagine the deal won’t come together until later in our budget season. There’s no strategic sense in putting a number out there early for non-Bills fans to criticize,” [state Sen. Sean] Ryan [of Buffalo] said.
If “no strategic sense” sounds suspiciously like a realpolitik way of saying let’s keep the spending numbers a secret until it’s too late for anyone to figure out what they mean, that’s usually exactly what it means. So it’s probably a good bet that whatever timeline Hochul has in mind for the project, it will be super-compressed to limit public debate, meaning it’s important to do as much of the math as possible beforehand, so we at least know what we’re talking about.
With that in mind, here’s a quick cheat sheet for what’s been established so far:
- Even if you assume that all Bills-related spending would disappear from New York state without a new stadium, anything more than $230 million in taxpayer spending would be a money loser for the state, according to the Bills’ own economic impact study.
- Renovating the Bills’ current stadium could cost as much as $1.5 billion less than building a new stadium. And that’s even including things like “decoration work” in the renovation price tag.
Certainly, the state legislature will not be happy if the governor tries to do an end run around them to fund a billion-dollar-plus project in an election year — but will they be unhappy enough to vote down the governor’s budget at the last second, if the public debate around it is mostly “let’s keep the Bills in Buffalo!” vs. “hang on, not clear yet what this will cost, let me get my calculator”? The first tea leaves will drop today after Hochul either says or doesn’t say something in her budget announcement, so everybody keep your eyes peeled.
If the Bills’ stadium bill will be snuck thru the legislature at budget time then it can’t be good for taxpayers. I’m only surprised there would be any action before November’s election.
Since you mentioned ESD (all stadia in NY nowadays are done thru ESD apparently), anyone know where to find the Shared Parking Agreement between NYAG and ESD (or whatever state agency) for Belmont Park Arena? They’re supposed to share revenues. I’m reminded of all that money the new parking garages were going to bring in for the new Yankee Stadium. I’ll like to know what parking revenues ESD will get and can they to the state or are they earmarked to site maintenance?
You should be able to FOIL for the parking agreement:
https://openfoil.ny.gov/#/newfoilrequest
Shenanigans!