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Our Mission Statement
The Association seeks to:
- Act as a medium of instruction in highway construction and maintenance
- Ensure better and safer highways
- Provide efficient public service
- Realize economies, through exchange of ideas, cooperation, and coordination
- Promote and support legislation that will benefit the best interest of the people in the towns
- Promote the principle of Home-Rule
- Defend the town form of government
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| Thank you to Our 2008 Advocacy Day Sponsors!
Breakfast Sponsor
International Truck & Engine Corp.
Silver Sponsor
Liquid Asphalt Distributors Association (LADA)
Bronze Sponsors
Clough, Harbour & Associates
Creighton Manning Engineering, LLP
Delta Engineers
Foit-Albert Associates
Tectonic Engineering & Surveying Consultants, PC
100% Membership Counties for 2008
Over 1,050 members have already paid dues for 2008. The following counties are leaders in reaching 100%:
Chautauqua, Chemung, Clinton, Franklin, Hamilton, Livingston, Monroe, Niagara, Onondaga, Ontario, Orange, Orleans, Putnam, Schuyler, Suffolk, Wayne, Westchester, and Yates.
And another 10 counties are only one member away. Thank you for your support!
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NYSAOTSOH & STATE LAWMAKERS DELIVER MAJOR BUDGET VICTORIES FOR LOCAL ROADS
By Fred Hiffa
- SECURES A RECORD $60 MILLION CHIPS INCREASE
- STOPS CONSOLIDATION EFFORT TARGETING OUR MEMBERS
- INCREASES CHIPS FUNDING IN DOT'S 5 YEAR PLAN
In what was the tightest state budget in over a decade NYSAOTSOH delivered on its member's priorities. Realizing this would be a very difficult budget year the Board ramped up its efforts this fall commissioning the state's first 20 Year Needs Study of Local Roads and Bridges. Association President Tim Spring personally briefed the state's key transportation decision makers on its findings including; DOT Commissioner Astrid Glynn, Senate Transportation Chair Tom Libous, Deputy Transportation Secretary to the Governor Tim Gilchrist and senior aides to Speaker Silver, Senate Majority Leader Bruno and Assemblyman Gantt. President Spring outlined the $45 billion in needs for our local system and emphasized the devastating impact runaway inflation on construction materials is having on our local roads and bridges. Coupling this with the outstanding turnout we had this year at Advocacy Day – Our State Legislators heard our message and reacted very favorably. Please thank your Assemblymembers and Senators. When the state budget was finally passed on Wednesday April 9th the combined efforts of all our members' hard work paid off:
- CHIPS capital funding was increased by $60 million over the Executive's Budget proposal and $51 million over the SFY 2007-08 level. The total SFY 2008-09 CHIPS funding is $363 million.
- The legislature rejected an effort by the Executive to unfairly increase CHIPS allocations for only those localities that take over Town highway departments. This poorly conceived plan would have unfairly targeted the elimination of Town Highway Departments. In recognizing our concerns the Legislature removed this proposal.
- With our urging the Legislature also rejected a proposal by the Executive to reduce the amount of financial data that is publicly reported on the Dedicated Highway Fund. This information will be critical for our Association as we develop our next five year transportation plan.
- The Executive's State and Local Bridge program was also rejected by the Legislature. While our bridges are in need of additional funding this program was poorly conceived giving local bridges only a third of the program's funds even though we have half of the state's bridges. Additionally, the plan would have had the DOT deciding which local bridges would be repaired with virtually no input from our members.
NYSDOT PROPOSES NEW FIVE YEAR CAPITAL PLAN Two weeks before the State Budget's April 1st deadline the DOT submitted their new five year plan to the state legislature. In the fall of 2007, the DOT released a 20 year plan which recognized the needs of our local highway system, but recommended no increase in state funding for local roads. To right this wrong, the Board released a 20 year local road study highlighting a $45 billion need in future funds for local roads, and then began educating key state decision makers on our local system's out year needs. They also noted that, while the drivers on our system are paying half the state's gas tax, we are only getting a fraction of these revenues back. The DOT's new proposed five year capital plan calls for a $263 million increase in CHIPS and Marchiselli funding , a 14 percent increase in the state's aid to local roads. This is a good first step, but we will work to convince the legislature that our needs deserve a higher level of funding. Increasing our funding will once again be a major challenge considering the DOT's proposed plan has an $8 billion funding gap. When the DOT proposed the current five year plan in 2005, they proposed no increase in local funding – so we are moving in the right direction. The plan could be passed this legislative session, but will most likely be dealt with in the state's next fiscal year.
NYSAOTSOH Commissions 20 year Needs Study of Local Roads and Bridges
Local Infrastructure has $45.7 Billion Need
For the first time NYSAOTSOH has done a needs study of New York's local highways owned by over 1600 towns, villages, cities and counties. This massive system consists of 97,000 centerline miles and over 8600 highway bridges. Approximately 48 percent of total travel vehicle miles in New York occurs on local highways. This means that over 67 billion vehicle miles are traveled annually on local roads and this travel is increasing at a rate of almost 2.5 percent per year placing even more stress on our pavement and bridge infrastructure. For detailed analysis, see our Legislative Resources page.
Member Search
Superintendent Members—We want to assure every Town Superintendent of Highways in the state is getting timely information about our Association and what is happening in the highway industry. With the recent elections, any help in identifying new superintendents is appreciated by our office. We will be sure to send them a welcome packet!
Regular Members—Did you know that NYSAOTSOH has a Regular Membership category? Any government entity with a concern for local roads may hold multiple memberships reflecting the number of mailings received.
Associate Members—We have a growing network of business partners. Please be sure to let your local sales representatives know the importance of supporting your Association. Multiple memberships may be held reflecting the number of mailings received.
Honorary Members—All retired Town Superintendents of Highways are eligible for a free membership. Please be sure to give us current contact information for any retiree who wishes to remain on our mailing list.
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