Highway Chiefs Call on Paterson to Avert Local Road Funding Crisis

ALBANY, NY (04/20/2010)(readMedia)-- Leaders of the two statewide associations representing locally-elected and appointed highway superintendents and public works commissioners today called on Governor David A. Paterson to include funding for local road and bridge projects in future emergency spending bills.

"The absence of provisions for local highway and bridge program funding, particularly for CHIP's, in the emergency spending bills sent by you to the legislature to keep the government operating without a state budget is an intolerable situation," the two association presidents wrote in a letter to Paterson. CHIP's, the Consolidated Highway Improvement Program, provides state capital funding for counties, towns, cities and villages to maintain roads and bridges under local jurisdiction.

The absence of language in the emergency bills is resulting in the non-payment by the state of legitimate expenditures that have already been made by contractors, consultants, engineers, local governments and highway departments for work on the state and local transportation systems and has brought much current and future work to a standstill.

Terrence Rice, President of the New York State County Highway Superintendents Association (NYSCHSA) and Thomas (Willie) Reifsteck, President of the New York State Association of Town Superintendents of Highways (NYSAOTSOH) wrote that "withholding payment for critical infrastructure maintenance and construction during the height of the construction season will not save the state money. Inaction is in fact adding new short and long term costs to the state."

Deferring maintenance and delaying current and new projects will necessitate the need for immediate layoffs in the construction industry, equipment purchase order cancellations and eventual disruption in the supply chain for materials if and when state policy changes and work is allowed to again proceed, according to the highway chiefs.

The highway superintendents associations are urging the Governor and the Legislature to include in future emergency spending bills language that will insure state reimbursement for CHIP's and other local transportation related capital construction contracts approved prior to April 1, 2010. The continued approval of new local transportation capital construction contracts must also be authorized "so as to meet the maintenance and safety demands of our local systems and to keep New Yorkers working!" the superintendents said.

"The safety of the driving public and the preservation of the State's transportation infrastructure need to be a top priority of your administration during the budget impasse. Please make certain that provisions to allow for state reimbursement for local transportation projects are included in future emergency spending bills," Rice and Reifsteck concluded.