BUFFALO, N.Y. — There are currently six Democrats vying to be the next mayor of the city of Buffalo.

Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon is among them. He assumed the role last fall after longtime incumbent Byron Brown resigned to take another job.

Scanlon spent 12 ½ years on the Common Council and became council president last January. While he's pursuing the full-time role, Scanlon says he can't let that get in the way of what's best for the city right now.

The acting mayor said he's cut $30 million from the budget already and is proposing creative revenue sources like a new parking authority and a bed tax as well as an 8% property tax increase to address a deficit projected in the tens of millions. 

"My wife and I are raising our kids in the city of Buffalo. We chose to do that and so we want to make sure the city of Buffalo is the best version of itself for my kids, your kids, our grandkids, and I think that by working together collaboratively and through different partnerships we'll be able to do that," Scanlon said.

The local Democratic Party is endorsing current state Sen. Sean Ryan, who has been in the Legislature since 2011. Before that, Ryan says he worked as a lawyer with a focus on things like helping single mothers and housing justice.

Ryan said Scanlon's budget proposal is full of gimmicks, underestimated expenses and overestimated revenues and the city can't address the underlying issues until it gets real about the numbers.

"The city just needs effective leadership on a base level and the issues that I hear out in the community walking door-to-door are people want their streets plowed, they want their potholes fixed, they want their sidewalks not to have cracks in them," Ryan said. 

Common Council Member Rasheed Wyatt was often critical of the Brown administration and says he sees more of the same from Scanlon. Wyatt, now in his third term, was a community organizer and advocate prior to entering politics with a background in finance including working roughly 15 years for HSBC bank.

He said city residents can't afford another big tax increase and he would focus on right-sizing government.

"It can be done" Wyatt said. "When you look at it, when you look at the overtime that we're paying, that's a big issue. We have to look at, how do we manage with a smaller budget but continue to deliver to the residents?"

Former Buffalo Fire Commissioner Garnell Whitfield worked for the city fire department for nearly 40 years but said, when it comes to city politics, he's an outsider, which is what he believes residents need. Whitfield became more outspoken as a national advocate for gun reform and victims' rights after his mother was killed during the May 2022 mass shooting. 

He said the city needs new management, new revenue sources and a more innovative tax structure that could include a progressive tax by which people who live in more affluent parts of the city would contribute more.

"We need a change,” Whitfield said. “I mean, we need competent, ethical leadership in the city of Buffalo. Look around the city of Buffalo and you'll see that it has long-standing issues and the powers that be have not addressed them.”

Other candidates include Michael Gainer, the founder of Buffalo ReUse, who has recently been active in challenging the state's plan for the Kensington Expressway, and Anthony Tyson Thompson, who said he has worked as community organizer, nonprofit leader and communications director in the New York State Assembly.

Attorney James Gardner is the Republican candidate.