NY Editorial Boards Criticize Bills Subsidy Deal

Hochul’s Buffalo stadium plan should be blocked
Newsday Editorial Board | March 29, 2022

The state’s plan to spend $600 million of taxpayer money on construction of a new stadium, plus another $280 million over the next 30 years for maintenance, repairs and capital improvements, all thrust upon lawmakers in the waning days before a massive state budget is due, isn’t a good decision. This plan won’t generate new permanent jobs or economic activity. It won’t add necessary housing, entertainment, office space, or community benefits. It won’t ripple through beleaguered downtown Buffalo or the surrounding communities beyond a standard eight or nine home games per year, plus a few preseason or postseason games and summer concerts. It won’t allow the stadium, without a full roof, to be used for much of the offseason. Even state officials admit that the usual economic development arguments don’t apply here. So, what do all New York state taxpayers get for their $880 million, plus the hundreds of millions more from Erie County, that could be spent on other pressing needs?

Spitting Buffalo nickels: The Bills Stadium deal is worse than it first looked
NY Daily News Editorial Board | April 3, 2022

A closer reading of Gov. Hochul’s billion-dollar election-year giveaway to her beloved Buffalo Bills shows the deal is even worse than we thought. The memorandum of understanding signed by New York State, Erie County and the Bills lays out in section after section state taxpayers being clipped, blocked, blitzed and sacked. Hochul more than fumbled, she committed an illegal motion, being offsides by huddling with the Bills against her own team, the taxpayers. The NFL rulebook is long and we could go on with puns of a turnover, a penalty and being picked off, but the specifics are what damns this rotten deal.

A bad deal for taxpayers
Times Union Editorial Board | March 30, 2022

Ms. Hochul’s deal with the Bills hands over $600 million in state money plus an additional $250 million from Erie County on the promise of an estimated 10,000 temporary construction jobs. Since it is merely a replacement for an existing stadium, the plan offers little in the way of new tax revenue or growth. In other words, state and county taxpayers are paying $850 million essentially to maintain the status quo. With the stadium planned for a suburban site across the street from the existing one, it doesn’t even offer the benefit of downtown Buffalo revitalization or investment in a high-poverty area. It is, quite simply, a bad deal.

Taxpayers paying a heavy price to keep the Bills
Daily Gazette Editorial Board | March 28, 2022

Surely for $850 million, there are other companies the state could have supported that would have generated more tax revenue, more economic development and more long-term, good-paying jobs. The state essentially was blackmailed by a multi-billionaire owner and by the NFL, which itself generates around $2 billion a year in revenue yet which only contributed a $200 million loan to this stadium deal. Mr. Pegula and the NFL have benefited greatly by their relationship with Buffalo, Erie County and New York state. They could have afforded to give us all a better deal. Instead, they decided to squeeze as much out of taxpayers as they could get away with by threatening to move the team. State officials owed it to their taxpayers to negotiate a better deal on their behalf. In that respect, they have failed miserably. Yes, the Bills are staying in New York. But it comes at a heavy price.

NY should drive a hard bargain on Buffalo Bills stadium deal
Syracuse.com Editorial Board | March 20, 2022

Taxpayers should not be bullied into bailing out the team’s uber-rich owner and the uber-uber-uber-rich National Football League. A new stadium would make them even richer. Yet study after study shows the public reaps extraordinarily little benefit from stadium construction. This is especially true for a football stadium, which is only used for eight to 10 home games and the occasional concert. Hochul and state legislators will have some explaining to do to voters if they give away the store to the billionaire owner of an NFL team.

Gov. Hochul’s giveaway for the rich leaves a nearly $1B Buffalo bill for taxpayers
New York Post Editorial Board | March 29, 2022

It’s a ridiculous giveaway to a wealthy and successful sports franchise that likely wasn’t going to leave the area. Hochul is kicking in $600 million from state coffers, while fiscally anemic Erie County will use $75 million from a current surplus and borrow $175 million to cover the rest of its share. Talk about kicking the football down the proverbial road … The $850 million deal surpasses the previous record subsidy for an NFL stadium, $750 million in public funding for the Las Vegas Raiders’ nearly $2 billion Allegiant Stadium. The gov’s office protests that the deal works out to about 61% in public financing, “well below other recent NFL stadium deals in comparable markets.” Even if true, that doesn’t make it right.

Taxpayers need a better deal on sports stadiums
Oneonta Daily Star Editorial Board | March 30, 2022

It’s a deal even the most rosy-eyed Bills fan must find nauseating: the state will cough up $600 million while Erie County will pay $250 million. To put this in perspective, the team’s owners, Kim and Terry Pegula, have an estimated net worth of $5.8 billion made in the gas hydrofracking industry. They and the NFL will contribute just $550 million, a small fraction of the $1.4 billion project’s cost. It would be the largest public subsidy for a sports stadium in U.S. history, surpassing the $750 million ripoff of Las Vegas taxpayers by the NFL’s Raiders in 2016.

Under Hochul’s plan, Buffalo will have a field day while downstate loses
Crain’s New York Editors | April 5, 2022

It would be hard not to notice such a large portion of money being taken from taxpayers in the [NYC] metro area and having it go toward a less populous area [Buffalo] for such a nonessential reason. This is especially so when the city is contending with a homelessness crisis, a lackluster distribution of rent and utility-bill relief, and the myriad problems that come along with our transit system. Would the governor say to a struggling family in Queens “Sorry that the rent-relief portal ran out of money, but if you ever find yourself upstate, feel free to come to a Bills game”?

Sold a Bill of goods: More evidence Gov. Hochul tackled taxpayers
NY Daily News Editorial Board | April 7, 2022

The billion-dollar price tag buys very little economic development. Perhaps a domed stadium in downtown Buffalo might have done that, if the new facility had been a hub of activity connected to housing and jobs and commercial space. Instead, like the current open-to-the-elements stadium, this new one will just sit on the side of the road by itself in the suburbs.