Buffalo entered its 2026 construction season with a backlog that would strain even a fully functional procurement machine. Two years of legal conflict between the city's comptroller and its Common Council over the authority to issue capital bonds have left over $200 million in approved infrastructure and facilities projects stuck on paper -- a delay that, according to council members and contractors alike, has already cost the city tens of millions of dollars in escalated bids and lost construction windows.

The Dispute, Condensed

In November 2024, then Acting Mayor Christopher Scanlon proposed a $110 million capital budget for the 2025 fiscal year. The Buffalo Common Council passed it unanimously. Comptroller Barbara Miller-Williams then declined to issue the Bond Anticipation Notes (BANs) needed to launch construction, citing concerns about the city's long-term fiscal health and what she described as an insufficient prioritization of shovel-ready projects within a $28 million debt threshold she had established.

By August 2025, Scanlon publicly stated that not a single shovel had entered the ground on any of the 2025 capital projects, calling it "inaction" and warning that the delay was threatening jobs, school improvements, and neighborhood upgrades. Councilmembers Scanlon and Mitch Nowakowski filed suit. In September 2025, a state Supreme Court judge ruled in favor of the councilmembers and ordered the comptroller to issue the bonds. Miller-Williams appealed.

In April 2026, the New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division, Fourth Judicial Department, unanimously upheld the lower court ruling, affirming that the Common Council has the authority under the City Charter to authorize borrowing for capital projects. The comptroller has since announced she plans to seek further review at the Court of Appeals -- New York's highest court.

What Is in the Queue

The 2026 capital budget, approved by the Council in a 7-1 vote in late 2025, totals $94 million in new investments and includes $55.6 million for Buffalo Public Schools projects (largely state-reimbursable), plus approximately $38.9 million in direct city investments:

• $8.3 million for city facilities including community centers, parks buildings, and recreational facilities
• $7.3 million for infrastructure and engineering
• $6 million for city parks
• $5.2 million for Buffalo Fire Department equipment and facilities
• $4.3 million for Buffalo Police Department vehicles, equipment, and facility improvements
• $3.8 million for libraries and cultural and educational institutions
• $3.5 million for DPW streets equipment

The 2025 capital budget's $110 million remains substantially unspent and must also move into procurement -- meaning the city faces a $200-million-plus project queue competing for contractor capacity in a single compressed season. Scanlon warned in April 2026: "We're trying to put $200 million of additional projects out into the streets [this season] while there are other things going on as well -- state and federal projects coming in -- and there are only so many people to do the work."

The Real Cost of Delay

Construction cost escalation is not hypothetical. Every month a shovel-ready project sits in procurement limbo, materials cost more, labor rates rise, and contractors reprice their bids to reflect market conditions at the time of award -- not at the time the project was planned. The two-year delay has compounded across the entire project queue.

Gary Hill, president of Union Concrete and Construction Corporation, put the market-level impact directly: "There are projects for repaving city streets right now that are sitting on hold that if they don't get awarded, those roads are going to be in terrible condition for another winter. We've been doing this since 1985, and in 40 years we've never run into a situation like this."

Beyond direct costs, the comptroller's position that $144 million in existing unspent capital funds should be deployed before new bonds are issued creates its own sequencing problem: those unspent funds are tied to specific approved purposes, not interchangeable with new project needs.

What the Appeals Court Said

The Appellate Division's unanimous April 2026 ruling held that the Common Council -- not the comptroller -- has the authority under the City Charter to authorize capital borrowing. Councilmember Nowakowski characterized the comptroller's continued appeals as a procedural delay costing the city additional money in legal fees and escalated project costs. The comptroller maintains that her fiduciary responsibility requires caution given Buffalo's fiscal position.

Implications for Contractors and Subcontractors

For firms working in Buffalo's municipal market, the situation creates both opportunity and risk. On the opportunity side, a $200 million backlog entering procurement simultaneously will generate a large volume of bid packages across paving, parks, facilities, schools, and public safety infrastructure. On the risk side, compressed bid-award-mobilize timelines increase the chance of incomplete bid documents, accelerated schedules, and change order conflicts.

Experienced contractors are already pricing contingency into bids for Buffalo public work -- accounting for schedule uncertainty and the possibility that projects are re-scoped or deferred again mid-process. Subcontractors should be cautious about committing capacity to Buffalo projects before bonds are confirmed as issued.

What to Watch Next

The Court of Appeals' decision on whether to accept the comptroller's appeal is the next determinative event. If the court declines to hear the case, the Appellate Division ruling stands and bond issuance should proceed. Mayor Sean Ryan, who took office in 2026, has proposed a 2026-27 budget that includes additional facility investment and positions capital projects as a priority -- but the legal resolution remains the gating item for the backlog.

Bottom Line

Buffalo's two-year bond dispute is a cautionary example of how municipal governance conflict can directly paralyze construction activity. For the trades, contractors, and project owners waiting on that $200 million backlog, the resolution of this dispute is the most pressing near-term event in the Buffalo construction market. When bonds are finally issued, expect a compressed, competitive, and potentially cost-escalated procurement environment across multiple project types simultaneously.

Sources

• BTPM -- State Appeals Court Upholds Ruling Ordering Comptroller to Borrow Money, April 24, 2026
• BTPM -- Buffalo Comptroller Plans to Appeal Latest Ruling, May 6, 2026
• WKBW -- $110 Million in Buffalo Projects Stalled Amid Standoff with City Comptroller, August 2025
• WKBW -- Buffalo Parks Among Planned City Upgrades as Construction Season Begins, May 4, 2026
• WKBW -- City of Buffalo Comptroller Seeks to Appeal Judge's Ruling, May 5, 2026
• Buffalo Criterion -- Buffalo Common Council Amends, Approves 2026 Capital Budget, November 2025