Hochul commits $600 million in state funds for new Buffalo Bills stadium as budget talks continue
ALBANY — As budget negotiations continued on Monday, Gov. Hochul announced that New York is committing $600 million in taxpayer funds for a new Buffalo Bills stadium.
In total, the deal will see $850 million in public funds go toward the Bills’ brand-new 60,000-seat stadium, per the agreement reached between state officials and the team’s owners.
Erie County has agreed to pony up the additional $250 million to keep the team upstate for at least the next three decades, while the NFL and Terry and Kim Pegula, the owner of the Bills, will cover the remainder of the $1.4 billion price tag.
“I’m pleased that after months of negotiations, we’ve come out with the best answers possible - the Bills will stay in Buffalo for another 30 years, the project will create 10,000 union jobs, and New Yorkers can rest assured that their investment will be recouped by the economic activity the team generates,” Hochul said in a statement.
The taxpayer funds on the table will make the agreement the largest on record for an NFL stadium. In 2017, Nevada agreed to pony up $750 million in public funding for the $1.97 billion arena that is now home to the Las Vegas Raiders.
Hochul is requesting that New York’s share of the money be approved as capital funds in the state budget, due by April 1.
The deal, which earned the blessing of labor unions, prompted pushback from progressives fighting for billions in spending for social services and education funding in the state’s fiscal plan.
Advocates with the Strong Economy for All Coalition and lawmakers, including Senate finance chair Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan), plan to hold a briefing on the “ineffectiveness of stadium subsidies” on Tuesday.
On Monday, other advocates and Albany lawmakers gathered at the State Capitol, decrying real estate subsidies and bail reform rollbacks Hochul is hoping to pass as part of the budget.
“As we approach the final days of budget negotiations, I call on Governor Hochul and my colleagues in the Legislature to strongly consider including measures that will make a real difference in New Yorkers’ everyday lives, such as universal childcare, gun violence prevention programs, and assistance for our undocumented communities,” Sen. Gustavo Rivera (D-Bronx) said following a rally for the Invest in Our New York Coalition, which is calling for investments in universal child care and healthcare.
Negotiations remained ongoing Monday evening, meaning that the governor will likely have to issue so-called “messages of necessity” if there is any hope of passing a budget on time. The messages allow lawmakers to move on budget bills without waiting the three days usually needed between printing and voting on measures.
Hochul proposed a $216 billion spending plan back in January, bolstered by federal COVID funds and better-than-anticipated tax revenues.
Sources said the governor’s proposed public safety changes, making more crimes bail-eligible and granting judges more discretion in setting bail, have slowed talks.
About a dozen of Hochul’s fellow Democrats, who control both the Assembly and the Senate, joined advocates for a rally opposing the governor’s 10-point plan earlier Monday.
Assemblywoman Latrice Walker (D-Brooklyn) said she is on day seven of a hunger strike announced after Hochul’s bail rollbacks were leaked to the press.
“Last week, on this very step, I made the commitment to put my body on my line to fight for real safety and justice and to oppose the Governor’s plan to undo critical civil rights legislation,” Walker said. “We have said to Gov. Hochul, ‘show us the data, the empirical data that supports the 10-point plan she is trying to accomplish.’ “She has not, and she cannot because the numbers show that bail reform is working.”
