Author name: Buffalo Latino Village

The genocide of Palestinians is back in the news, and government officials on both sides of the aisle remain committed to seeing this ethnic cleansing through — with the support of our tax dollars. Here is something Erie County taxpayers should know. Erie County contributes public money into the New York State and Local Retirement System for its employees. Those contributions become part of the New York State Common Retirement Fund, which invests public pension dollars on behalf of participating governments. That fund invests directly in debt issued by the State of Israel. According to the NYS Comptroller’s March 2025 asset listing, the retirement fund held $277.5 million in Israeli government bonds by face value, with a listed carrying value of approximately $268.9 million. This is not speculation about what those bonds accomplish. When the Fund purchased an additional $20 million in Israel Bonds in October 2023, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli openly stated the bonds “help support Israel.” That purchase brought Israel-bond holdings at the time to $267.8 million. The Comptroller also reported approximately $1.5 billion in total Fund investments in Israel across asset classes. These are not shares in an American corporation that happens to operate in Israel. They are bonds issued by the State of Israel itself. Now, this does not mean $277.5 million came from Erie County alone. The retirement fund pools contributions from governments across New York State. The exact share would require a separate calculation — or, more simply, elected officials can explain why our public investments are not held in American stocks and bonds. So when we talk about where our local government money goes, we must stop looking only for a line item in the Erie County budget labeled “Israel.” Government financing never works that way. It works through obfuscation, layered financial structures, and manipulated narratives that keep taxpayers in the dark. As taxpayers, we have the right to know where our money is invested, who benefits from it, and why our public dollars are being used to underwrite a foreign government engaged in mass human rights violations. Accountability is not optional — it is the minimum requirement for public stewardship. Because the humanity of Palestinians will continue to be denied as long as their suffering — and their deaths — remain financially profitable

By Eri Alvarado Every time a need arises in our community, the default prescription is predictable: start a nonprofit. –Feed people? Nonprofit. –Teach children? Nonprofit. –Preserve our history? Nonprofit. –Create cultural programming? Nonprofit. –Access donated money? Nonprofit. Then we spend years applying for grants so we can perform work the government is already responsible for ensuring gets done. Government collects our taxes to provide services, then funnels portions of that money to nonprofits to deliver those same services. When communities continue to struggle, when resources remain scarce, and when change is painfully slow, government can point to all the money it “invested” and all the organizations it funded — and then blame the community for its own hardship. Meanwhile, the community still has very little. There is a place for nonprofits — but it is not for building cultural infrastructure. If what you’re creating can be sold as a service, why is the automatic impulse to form a nonprofit instead of a business? A nonprofit should exist because the mission requires a nonprofit structure, not because it feels like the default option. Culture is a perfect example. Festivals, dance classes, historical programming, community engagement, cultural tourism, language services, event production, art, food, music and educational experiences are not “nice things we do for our people.” They are cultural infrastructure. And cultural infrastructure generates money. A festival fills restaurants. Visitors stay in hotels. Vendors sell products. Musicians perform. Security companies get contracts. Cities market our culture to attract tourists. So why are the people who create the culture expected not to build wealth from it? Why does government feel entitled to own our cultural product without first paying for it? Businesses build wealth because owners can earn profits, accumulate assets, employ people, purchase property and reinvest. A nonprofit does not belong to its founder. Its assets are held for its charitable purpose. It becomes another hand in managing government money, not a vehicle for building sustainability for your people. Nonprofits are the right structure when charity is the mission. They should not automatically be our structure for economic development. Create the business. Choose a legal structure, register it with your state, obtain an EIN, open a business account, establish bookkeeping, secure required licenses and insurance, and price your service to include labor, expenses, overhead and profit. Then document your work; stop walking into government offices asking only, “What grants are available?” There is an enormous difference between government giving you money to administer its responsibilities and government becoming your customer. Imagine hundreds of locally owned cultural businesses winning contracts. Hire locally. They buy locally. Businesses grow. Tax revenue grows. More money circulates through the community instead of merely passing through it. And government remains accountable for the services it is responsible for providing. Communities can be partners and vendors without being asked to carry government responsibility under the language of empowerment. Keep saying we want marginalized communities to succeed economically. Then stop teaching people only how to manage programs. Teach them how to own companies, sell what they create, and build wealth from it. When they build cultural infrastructure that government and the larger economy benefit from, pay them for it.