Last week or so, Moody's announced that the City of Niagara Falls' bond rating was lowered as a result of the casino revenue being withheld because of the stalemate between the State of New York and the Seneca Nation. The significance of this is that it will cost the City more money if they want to borrow for capital projects. It's no different than if a person has a bad credit rating: it is going to cost them more in interest if they want to borrow money.
The blame for this situation goes up and down the food chain. The fact that Governor Cuomo has not had the decency to address this issue publicly is a slap in the face to the residents of Niagara Falls. His lone visit to the City since becoming Governor was to give a sweetheart deal to Jimmy Glynn. He never addressed the dire financial situation the City is in and of course none of the "hard-hitting" media in Western New York pushed Cuomo on it.
Then of course we have our local state representatives. Neither Senator Maziarz or Assemblyman Ceretto has done anything to ratchet up the heat on the Governor to provide relief to the City. The hair-brained scheme to advance NYPA money was a terrible deal for the City but it appears that it was the best that could be done by these two powers of state government.
Our city government has created this mess by spending casino money like drunken sailors. Mayor Dyster is clueless. He has lived off the casino revenue thinking that it was an endless source of revenue. As a result, he never took measures to actually try to make government more efficient. Tell me one initiative that Dyster has put forth that would reduce the cost of city government. I don't think you can find one.
As far as the City Council goes, they are complicit with the Mayor in the fiscal mismanagement of this city. They have gone along for the ride, holding the Mayor hostage by getting jobs for their friends. The image that Glenn Choolokian and Sam Fruscione are protecting the taxpayers is bogus. Particularly when you consider their actions in the formulation of the 2013 budget. While the Mayor wimped out in dealing with the loss of casino revenue by making hard choices, Fruscione and Company did the same thing by cutting the funding to USA Niagara. That reduction is simply a one-time fix. They, like the Mayor, are banking on getting casino money to save them for 2014. But there is no guarantee that will happen when you have a Governor who is more concerned about being President, 2 state representatives who have absolutely no ability or desire to place enough pressure on the Governor to get something done and a Mayor & City Council who are viewed as being backwater buffoons.
Of the whole group, there are 3 council people who will be running for re-election this fall: Fruscione, Kristen Grandinetti and Charles Walker. Unless we send a message that we have had enough of the grandstanding and lack of courage to address this issue, we will be facing more of the same ineffective leadership and the City will continue on its downward cycle.
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