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City should cut ties with USA Niagara and de-fund NFC

Last week the Reporter examined USA Niagara Development Corporation (USAN), a state agency funded in part by $3.1 million in city dollars.

It appears the city could cut almost half of its projected 2013 deficit if it stopped funding this agency.

It surprised a lot of people to learn that USA Niagara, a state agency charged with investing money to develop downtown Niagara Falls, actually takes 18 percent of the state aid the city receives.

We reported the city’s contract with USA Niagara ends this year and the council is looking at terminating this payment.

When USA Niagara was created in 2002, then-Gov. George Pataki promised that USAN would use state money to partner with developers to transform downtown Niagara Falls into another Times Square. What happened instead is the city signed an agreement that gives the agency millions of dollars of city money which USAN uses to help developers and pay salaries to themselves.
The Reporter filed a freedom of information request with USA Niagara to get a complete list of salaries to help the public understand the better and learn how their dollars are being spent, information that is public record.

It may be the first time anyone has ever filed a FOIL with USA Niagara.

We will be reporting the complete results when we get them.

This week we are also going to look at other ways the city could save money, including slashing or de-funding the NFC, a unit of Niagara Falls government which used to lend money to small businesses and collect interest but has become for the most part a tool of USA Niagara and a gift-giver of public money to favored businesses in Niagara Falls.

Closing the NFC might save more than $1 million per year.

Three million from USA Niagara and another million from the NFC and the city’s budget gap is greatly reduced.

 

 

Niagara Falls Reporter www.niagarafallsreporter.com Aug 07 , 2012