BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — In recent years, the City of Buffalo has ended each fiscal year with a budget gap. FY2025-2026 is no different.
Come June 30, the deficit is estimated between $25 million and $30 million. Police and fire overtime spending is the main culprit. But why?
Understaffing is how Buffalo Police Union President John Davidson explains the Buffalo Police Department's overtime overspend. He says there are around 725 sworn officers in the department, but he believes around 100 more are needed to fully staff the city.
"There's a glut of overtime, and a big reason for that is that there's not enough police officers, but that everyone still wants crime to stay low and continue to drop," Davidson said.
The number of officers leaving the department far outpaces the number joining, with 47 officers retiring last year and only five getting hired this year, according to Davidson.
Usually, overtime is called in voluntarily when officers are needed to staff special events like parades, or to police nightlife on Chippewa Street. But Davidson tells me it is now used to meet basics of policing, like responding to 911 calls.
"Officers are being forced to work," Davidson explains. "So a lot of this overtime that's being talked about is not desired overtime."
WATCH: Why police and fire overtime spending is driving Buffalo's projected budget gap
He says the problem is bad for officers in the B-District downtown, with some officers going without a weekend off for months.
The city's control board, known as the Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority, says police overtime spending is on track to exceed the budgeted amount by $9 million, and fire by more than $6 million, making up around half of the city's projected $25 million to $30 million budget gap this fiscal year.
Buffalo Mayor Sean Ryan argues the overspend is a budgeting problem, with overoptimistic amounts budgeted to cover overtime costs under previous administrations. He says his budget will be different.
"So the real numbers are going to be the real numbers, as opposed to saying overtime's only gonna be this much and then be shocked when it exceeds it," Ryan said.
Last year, the Buffalo Common Council tried to tackle the problem by cutting the police and fire overtime budget by a total of $1 million, with plans to offset those cuts through outside reimbursements for event-related public safety costs, like policing the KeyBank Center.
But with just over two months left before the end of the fiscal year, it looks as though that plan is not working.
The city has taken $17,530 of a predicted $175,000 in special event fees, according to the city's public revenue documents. That's just 10% of the amount budgeted.
Both Buffalo Fire and Police unions are currently operating out of contract and are set to negotiate with the city in the coming months. The unions are expected to bargain for pay increases for their members, throwing even more uncertainty on the issue of overtime spending in future years.
