BUFFALO, N.Y. — A Community Benefits Agreement outlining ways the Buffalo Bills would give back to Western New York as part of the new stadium deal agreed to in March was supposed to be signed by Sept. 1. 

About $850 million in public funding is being contributed up front to the project. 

The parties pushed that deadline back to Oct. 16 and then Friday announced they were extending it again — now to 30 days after the state finishes an Environmental Quality Review on the proposed site in Orchard Park.

"I want to believe that a deal is going to get done," Erie County Legislature Minority Leader Joe Lorigo said. "I think it's too important not to get done but at this point if they keep delaying, delaying, delaying without any real information being given to the Legislature or to the public at all, one starts to wonder what's happening."

Lorigo said he has significant concerns about the delays. In a joint statement, the negotiating parties say they have made considerable progress on the final contracts which include the CBA and a Project Labor Agreement.

The Bills meanwhile have agreed not to shop the team to other cities while the negotiations continue.

"When the deal was struck in principle, one of the first things the county executive told us was that there was a real possibility that they were going to leave if the deal wasn't done by Sept. 1," he said. "Now we're a month and a half past that initial deadline. They've agreed not to go anywhere but nothing else has really materialized."

Lorigo continued to be critical of non-disclosure agreements that county negotiators — including three members of the Legislature — signed earlier this fall. He said he worries that even if they come to terms on a deal, the government could be giving up leverage, potentially minimizing the impact of a document that's been described as a potential game changer for some of the region's more underserved communities.

"I don't know if it's a priority of the Bills. I don't know if it's a priority of the state. I know the legislators that sit on that committee have made it a priority but they're three votes out of six and if it's not something that's important to the county executive or the governor or the Bills, it could be in jeopardy," Lorigo said.

In the joint statement, the negotiating parties said they do still expect to break ground next year. The county executive previously said he expected the environmental review to be finished in late November or early December, meaning the new deadline is likely around the new year.

Lorigo did openly wonder if the delays have anything to do with the November election, noting the Bills Stadium deal has not been popular with voters downstate.