{"id":159693,"date":"2026-04-07T18:50:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T18:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/159693\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T18:50:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T18:50:11","slug":"seneca-babcock-falsely-claimed-tax-status","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/159693\/","title":{"rendered":"Seneca-Babcock falsely claimed tax status"},"content":{"rendered":"

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) \u2014 The Seneca-Babcock Community Association, which abruptly shut down<\/a> some programs last month and had its CEO plan to resign, allegedly falsely claimed that the organization maintained its tax-exempt status with the IRS.<\/p>\n

The alleged findings were disclosed by the Department of Social Services to members of the Erie County Legislature during a meeting last week, according to legislature chair Tim Meyers.<\/p>\n

CEO and president Brian Pilarski submitted his resignation in March to the board of directors as fellow Erie County Legislator Frank Todaro called for a state investigation into the organization, which has provided a variety of services for years as a nonprofit.<\/p>\n

However, as of March 24<\/a>, not all services were shut down, according to Pilarski. Youth programs had been suspended, but other programs such as childcare, its food pantry, senior transportation, and case management were still active. Its daycare had been on the chopping block to be shut down, but remains open.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Legislature\u2019s responsibility to the seniors of the First District and the broader community does not pause while that investigation proceeds,\u201d Meyers said in a news release on Tuesday. \u201cWe will continue working with the Department for the Aging, the Department of Social Services and all relevant parties to ensure that nutrition programs, transportation services, and case management support remains available to the older adults who depend on them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The concerns began through a social media post from a resident claiming that the organization had failed to submit required financial records to the IRS. The Department of Social Services found that the organization had falsely claimed its tax exempt status in order to obtain payment for programming.<\/p>\n

The Erie County District Attorney\u2019s Office has started an investigation into the organization. There was no update provided on any potential charges.<\/p>\n

The Legislature said it will not comment further, saying it has \u201cfull confidence\u201d in the DA office\u2019s investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe respect that process,\u201d Meyers said, \u201cand we will not seek to get ahead of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Latest Local News\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Aidan Joly was named News 4\u2019s Digital Executive Producer in 2025. He has been on staff since 2022. He is a graduate of Canisius College. You can see more of his work here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to News 4 Buffalo. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) \u2014 The Seneca-Babcock Community Association, which abruptly shut down some programs last month and had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[72244,72245,136,29806,138,137,63023,72247,72246,72243,72242],"class_list":["post-159693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-brian-pilarski","tag-department-of-social-services","tag-erie","tag-erie-county-legislature","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-frank-todaro","tag-investigation-proceeds","tag-state-investigation","tag-tax-exempt-status","tag-tim-meyers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}