Scanlon proposes establishment of parking authority, sale of city-owned parking ramps

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) -- Acting Buffalo Mayor Chris Scanlon said the city is staring down a budget deficit of around $60 million and proposed the sale of four city-owned parking ramps as one of the ways to bridge some of that gap.

Scanlon is seeking authorization from the New York State Legislature to establish a new public authority. If the Buffalo Parking Authority is established, the idea is that the current city-owned parking ramps would be sold off to the authority.

"The City of Buffalo owns four parking ramps, and I don't think the City of Buffalo should be in the parking business," Scanlon said. "I think that associated that and accompanied by the fact that the state these ramps are in and the amount of investment they're going to require moving forward and capital improvements — it's something that I don't think we should take on."

"I'd like to establish the Buffalo Parking Authority, who could purchase these ramps from us. They could bond out and purchase these from us," said Scanlon. "They would bring an infusion of cash into our budget. Obviously, that does not fix the budget structurally, I know that, but it certainly can serve as a cushion over the course of the next couple of years while we address the budget structurally."

Scanlon said based on initial talks, the city could be poised to make somewhere around $40 million from the sale of the ramps. He wants to use the total funds made from a potential sale over several years to address the budget structurally.

"It serves as a one-time shot, obviously, a huge infusion of cash, but, you know, like I said with the other authorities that we still receive revenue from, we'll negotiate something where we still receive revenue from it," Scanlon said. "If a BCAR or something, another entity like that continues to operate them, we will make sure that we extract revenue and don't forfeit that recurring revenue — that's something I wouldn't want to do."

State Senator Sean Ryan, who is the candidate endorsed by the Erie County Democratic Committee for Buffalo mayor, shared this statement to WIVB News 4 in response to Scanlon's plan:

“As things currently stand, we haven't been told exactly how big a deficit the city is facing. If the city wants the State Senate to support this plan, we need to know they have a solid handle on their fiscal situation and we need an explanation for how this bill fits into a larger plan to fix it. This appears to be yet another one-time revenue gimmick to kick the can down the road another year instead of doing the hard work to fix Buffalo's structural budgetary problems."

Lovejoy District Buffalo Common Council Member and President Pro Tempore Bryan Bollman said there's still more that needs to be figured out about the plan.

"Learning more about it is important to see if it is viable, but as a councilmember, we have to look at every single opportunity we have to generate revenue, so seriously considering this, [I] just have to learn more about it," Bollman said. "We have potentially a $50 million deficit is what we're hearing, so it's not going to be one silver bullet that really takes care of this budget."

"We have to look at cuts, tax increases and other ways to generate revenue, so parking authority could be one," Bollman said. "Mention the occupancy tax and I think it's going to be a combination of a lot of things trying to, you know, close this budget gap."

Scanlon said if his plan is enacted, the parking authority would set ramp parking rates, with oversight from the authority's board.

"The authority would set those," said Scanlon. "But, you know, like other authorities, people on there appointed by the mayor, approved by the council, and so there is some oversight there to make sure that one thing I don't want to see is a public authority come in and jack rates up. We would never stand for that."

This isn't the only potential parking change in Buffalo. The Buffalo Common Council is currently reviewing a proposal to raise parking violation fines, which can be seen below.