BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — The City of Buffalo is getting $331 million in two payments from the Federal Government as part of the American Rescue Plan.
Mayor Brown and the entire Buffalo Common Council agreed on the plan Thursday and say the money is going directly into the community.
“The idea is not for it to take years and years, but for it to be rolled out quickly,” Mayor Brown said.
Some of the blueprint includes:
-$20 million to support people who are in job training or ups killing programs by removing barriers that would interrupt learning
-$40 million to improve the city water and infrastructure system including money that will replace old lead lines
-$63 million to improve parks and community centers
-$10.5 million to support cultural arts and front line organizations like anti-violence community groups
-$6 million for public safety and violence prevention programs
-$17.3 million for affordable housing
-$27 million for targeted workforce training
“To help our economy recover, but also help our people recover,” said Buffalo Common Council President Darius Pridgen.
Not included in the plans is the previously proposed income assistance program, which would have provided $500 monthly stipends to 1,600 low income Buffalo families.
“It would have been a game of chance,” Brown said.
Mayor Brown says that idea could have left out thousands of families in need, so instead, much of that money is going toward training programs and creating better living wage career jobs for Buffalo families. Some of the money-going toward helping families get to a job and stay with it.
“It could be daycare assistance, it could be a bus fare, transportation assistance,” Brown said.
India Walton, who defeated B brown in May in the Democratic Primary for Mayor responded to Brown’s plan saying:
“Earlier this month, when we released a comprehensive agenda or getting serious about public safety in Buffalo by addressing the root causes of violence, Byron Brown took to the airwaves to depict it as dangerous and scary. Now, it turns out he’s stealing our ideas and claiming them as his own, even though he has yet to release so much as an issues page on his website. While we’re glad our vision is becoming embraced more widely, the fact remains that Mr. Brown has had 16 years to take an evidence-based, data-driven approach to public safety, and he has abjectly failed to do so. You need look no further than the out-of-control gun violence in our city to know that much. Those living with violence every day see this Hail Mary for the desperate last-ditch effort it is, and know beyond a shadow of a doubt: it is time for a change.”
