For the week of October 16,
2017
“Report highlights case for local roads
campaign”
The New York
State comptroller released a report last week stating the following, “Local communities are facing a big price tag for
maintaining and repairing bridges. Many local governments understand the
importance of long-term planning for their infrastructure needs but they will
need help. Difficult decisions lie ahead, but these infrastructure needs must
be addressed.”
The
comptroller’s report is a timely reminder as state legislators across New York
gear up for a new legislative session.On this front, over the past several years Assemblyman Phil Palmesano and I have taken up what has been a decades-long rallying cry for local highway superintendents throughout the state: Local Roads Matter. We have worked hard to grow a critical coalition of legislative colleagues, Democrats and Republicans, the local roads team, numerous other local leaders, and statewide transportation advocates to keep building bipartisan support within the Legislature for a more fair, equitable, and stronger state commitment to local roads, bridges, and culverts.
Thousands of local highway superintendents and work crews, from every corner of New York, wearing fluorescent orange “Local Roads Matter” t-shirts, have turned out in force for the annual “Local Roads Matter” advocacy campaign at the Capitol.
As noted, we have been at this now since 2013. The effort keeps picking up steam. This year we gained the support of a bipartisan coalition of 137 state legislators, or nearly 65 percent of the Legislature’s entire membership. Most importantly, beginning with the 2013-14 state budget, funding for the state’s Consolidated Local Street and Highway Improvement Program (CHIPS, the primary source of state aid for local roads) has increased by more than $200 million, or upwards of 40%. Additional funding for local roads is being dedicated through a new PAVE-NY program. A new BRIDGE-NY program is providing aid for local bridge and culvert projects. Furthermore, for the first time since 2010, the state budget provides parity in funding between the five-year state Department of Transportation (DOT) and Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) capital plans, with each plan slated to receive approximately $27 billion.
Combined, these programs are delivering significant funding increases for counties, cities, towns, and villages. Regionally, for example, total aid percentage increases from 2013 to this year have ranged from 45% to 55%.
It has been significant, yet it represents only a start. The comptroller’s analysis last week delivered a timely reminder. According to the report, local governments, mostly counties, own 8,834 out of 17,462 bridges in New York State. Daily traffic on these bridges is nearly 33.4 million vehicles. An encouraging finding is that the overall percentage of structurally deficient local bridges declined from 16.7 percent to 12.8 percent from 2002 to 2016.
However, the ongoing need remains undeniable: the comptroller pegs the cost of repairing locally owned bridges throughout New York State at nearly $28 billion. A huge expense, but one that warrants stepped-up state investment.
Here’s the core of the Local Roads Matter case: now more than ever, New York State must support a steady, strong, multi-year strategy to address local transportation infrastructure and help build a local transportation system that our communities, motorists, and taxpayers deserve. Local governments face increasingly difficult fiscal constraints due to the tax cap and long-stagnant state aid to municipalities. CHIPS, PAVE-NY and BRIDGE-NY funding is fundamentally important to local economic development, job creation, motorist safety, and property tax relief.
Earlier this year, County Highway Superintendents Association President George P. Spanos stated, “Unfortunately, after years of underinvestment, (this year’s) increase in state funding for local roads and bridges falls short of the maintenance demands of our aging and ailing infrastructure.”
Association of Town Superintendents
of Highways President Michael Boesel added, “Despite our best efforts local
road, culvert and bridge conditions are deteriorating at a faster pace than we
can keep up with at current funding levels. More is needed to stop the decline.
We must increase our investment in order to provide a safe and efficient
transportation system for our communities and the economy.”
Our “Local Roads
Matter” coalition fully recognizes the need and remains ready to keep paving
the way for a stronger state commitment to local transportation.
