County Executive Joins Call for More State Funding

September 28, 2009

County Executive Joins Call for More State Funding

Critical WNY infrastructure support drastically cut

County Executive Chris Collins and Public Works Commissioner Jerry Sentz today joined the FAIR (Fair Apportionment of Infrastructure Revenues) Committee of Western New York in calling on State leaders to restore funding for road and bridge construction projects in our area.

FAIR is a coalition of engineering firms, construction companies, consultants, and union and non-union labor which advocates for road and bridge infrastructure projects in Region 5 of Western New York, which is made up of Erie, Niagara, Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties.  The group has been calling on New York State to reverse a major cutback in State funding for road and bridge projects that occurred in the 2008/09 Department of Transportation budget.

"Downstate leaders are once again demonstrating their apathy for Western New York with this shortfall of DOT funding," said Erie County Executive Chris Collins.  "Infrastructure repairs are critically important to every corner of the state, and create jobs that are vital to support our local economy.  In these tough economic times, the state should be focused on helping Western New York in every way possible.  Instead, leaders in Albany continue to burden the counties with unaffordable mandates.  I sincerely hope they'll reconsider and send a fair share of DOT funding to our area.  Our hardworking taxpayers deserve better."

Historically, Region 5 received about 9% of the state’s total road and bridge budget.  The region holds 12% of State highway lane miles and 11.7% of State owned bridges.  Western New York also has 12.4% of the locally owned bridges and 10% of the locally owned lane miles in the state.  Despite these numbers, the NYSDOT saw fit to slash the Region 5 allocation this year to just 4.4% of the State’s total spending.  This cut amounts to a loss of $75 million.  To make matters even worse, NYSDOT then applied the same formula to the distribution of the Federal Stimulus funds which shorted our region by an additional $30 million.

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Without these funds, totaling $105 million, critical road and bridge construction and repair projects in Western New York are not getting done, putting the traveling public at risk and preventing the creation of over 5000 good paying construction jobs.

Recently Governor Paterson announced that because of lower than expected bids on Federal Stimulus projects, New York State would be experiencing a surplus of funds.  FAIR is calling on the Governor to allocate these funds to Region 5.  Such an action would be in keeping with the purpose of the Federal Stimulus program--putting people to work on shovel ready projects.  It would also help to reverse the damage done by the NYSDOT.  The group is also calling on the Governor to do an immediate review of the DOT budget formulas to make sure that these formulas reflect the large number of lane miles and bridges in Region 5, the large number of registered vehicles (third largest in New York State), and the infrastructure needs our community has so that these kind of draconian cuts do not occur in the future.

“We want to thank the County Executive for his support with this very important infrastructure and jobs issue,” said FAIR Chairman Douglas May.  “For decades, State officials have talked about the need to address the upstate economy.  There is no better way to put people to work quickly and at good paying jobs than through road and bridge projects.  The Federal Stimulus Program was meant to do just that.  We have the projects in Western New York that are ready to go and we all know we have the need to put people to work immediately.”

 “A restoration of funding creating 5000 new jobs would have a significant impact on our local economy,” said Organized Labor Spokesperson Tom Burke.  “Just think of the spending that would result from the wages paid to the folks working these jobs.  Instead, because New York State saw fit to cut our traditional allocation, we recently experienced a construction season where construction workers were actually being laid off in what was always the industry’s busiest season.  We are calling on Gov. Paterson to do the right thing for public safety and job creation in Western New York and allocate surplus Stimulus funds to our region.”

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