Mayor Sean Ryan has revealed that the current administration may increase the property tax levy in Buffalo, New York, by about 25 percent. The increase would help the city address its current $109 million budget deficit.
According to reports, the mayor’s office said the measure could “help close the gap to around $45 million,” allowing the city to better fund essential public services. Ryan added that Buffalo has only about 50 percent of the trucks it needs and half the required snowplows, while also lacking enough police cars, defending the budget adjustment as “critically important.”
The mayor explained that this tax hike would cost about only $20 to $30 per month and urged locals to “adopt a wait-and-see approach” before overreacting to the proposed change.
Buffalo Residents Slam Mayor Sean Ryan Amid Possible Property Tax Levy Increases
While Sean Ryan said the change would not negatively affect locals’ lives, many Buffalo residents expressed anger on social media, criticizing the need to pay higher taxes. One person wrote, “Stop spending money you don’t have.”
“How come they never look at and audit spending?” one distressed user asked. Others complained that the “government is the only job where you can consistently miss your goals and tell your boss it’s their fault and they need to pay more.”
Some residents expressed concern about how the tax hike could affect their lives, with one person claiming that the local government “keeps turning to homeowners to fix financial issues” and that the administration is “driving us out of this state or into poverty,” especially as inflation rises everywhere and Americans have less money to spare.
Not everyone blamed Sean Ryan, however. One resident pointed to past leadership, saying, “The Byron Brown administration didn’t raise taxes for nearly 20 years. You could cut spending significantly and still face a deficit. We have to raise taxes and likely continue doing so until we reach a balanced budget. City of Buffalo property taxes are among the lowest in the country.” It remains to be seen how these proposed increases will affect the cost of living and the overall quality of public services in the city.
