City leaders crying poor about the library system's $1.5 million budget batted not an eyelash at appropriating more than double that amount to assist a state agency, the Reporter has learned.
Mayor Vince Anello's 2006 city budget contains a $3,103,386 line item for USA Niagara, the local development arm of the quasi-governmental Empire State Development Corp.
According to John Risio, project manager for USA Niagara, the money is the result of a May 2005 agreement between the city and the state "in relation to the Conference Center Niagara Falls."
City resident Sharon MacDougall is outraged that the cash-strapped city is subsidizing the conference center, a facility that sits empty most of the time and has been unable to attract a single marquee event since opening in 2004. Last month, she wrote Anello via his "Ask the Mayor" e-mail address to ask about the situation, but never received a reply.
Councilman Bob Anderson told the Reporter that the Anello administration entered into the contract without consulting the Council.
"It's a legally binding agreement, and there's nothing we can do about it," he said. "That's just the way it is."
According to its own mission statement, USA Niagara is "solely dedicated to the support and promotion of Niagara Falls by leveraging private investment and encouraging growth and renewal of the tourism industry in the City of Niagara Falls."
Note the bit about "private investment." Other than improvements made by Dan Vecchies at Shadow and Steve Fournier at Cafe Etc., USA Niagara has been spectacularly unsuccessful in attracting any investment whatsoever to the city's tourist district. Unless, of course, you count the dollar Buffalo real estate speculator Carl Paladino ponied up for the old United Office Building.
Instead, like maggots feeding off a rotting corpse, the agency and its ill-advised conference center are being underwritten by the city's rapidly dwindling tax base.
Albany's shameful treatment of Niagara Falls goes back generations and includes the looting of tourist dollars at the state park and the Power Authority's outright theft of locally produced hydropower. Our elected representatives, state Sen. Byron Brown and Rep. Francine Del Monte, have been unable or unwilling to stop the wholesale pillaging of the city by forces whose interests lie far from the mighty cataracts.
Sharon MacDougall is outraged. As we all should be.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | Dec. 13 2005 |