Legislative Resources
2011 Legislative Session Report
By Fred Hiffa and Megan Osika
End of Session Wrap Up
Last night the Senate and Assembly concluded the 2011 legislative session. The major issues addressed at the end of session were a property tax cap, rent regulation, SUNY2020, same sex marriage, mandate relief, and Title X power plant siting.
If you have any questions or would like additional information, please contact Fred or Megan at (518) 436-6202 or the Association Office at (518) 694-9313. Below are updates on major legislation of interest:
Highways Advocacy Day in the Press
Three different camera crews interviewed some of our officers for television stations. NYSCHSA President Bill Dashnaw and NYSAOTSOH President Roger Wolfe were on Central New York radio. A few newspapers around the State also carried various aspects of our story. Here are a few of the stories in case you missed them!
The first aired on Channel 10 (ABC) early morning before the event:
http://www.wten.com/Global/category.asp?C=172705&clipId=5642747&topVideoCatNo=14990&autoStart=true
Board Members Bernie Meyer (Town of Canaan, Columbia County) and Rick Kukuk (Town of Clifton Park, Saratoga County) are both highlighted in this YNN clip:
Bill Dashnaw and Roger Wolf were both interviewed mid-day on a show called "The Capitol Pressroom" with interviewer Susan Arbetter which aired on public radio in Central New York:
http://thecapitolpressroom.org/the-capitol-pressroom-for-march-9-2011/
These reporters were there to help us by letting the public know that Local Roads are still severely underfunded even though no cuts were made in the State Budget this year.
Report Addresses Governor’s Call for Consolidation
In his State of the State speech yesterday, Governor Cuomo emphasized, "we must continue to rightsize our more than 10,500 local governments through consolidations, mergers and shared services." However, a report released last week by the New York State Association of Town Superintendents of Highways, Inc. (NYSAOTSOH) titled Delivering Highway Services at the Town Level in New York State: Home Rule Accountability for Effective Highway Maintenance on Neighborhood Roads and Streets challenged some of the Governor's solutions. (For full report, click here.)
The report was independently prepared and sent to leaders in both the Executive and Legislative branches. In response to Governor Cuomo's calls to consolidate local governments for assumed cost savings, NYSAOTSOH President Roger Wolfe of the Town of Yates, Orleans County declared, "[Our] members have worked closely with Village, City and County governments to achieve cost savings through cooperation and shared services. Doing more with less is nothing new for local governments. Many of our service agreements go back decades with more costs savings per mile than State operations. Our constituents know every dollar they pay in Town taxes stays in their community, directly providing the services they need - and every other November they tell us how well we are doing!"
Read more: Report Addresses Governor’s Call for Consolidation
Associations Testify that State's Plan Jeopardizes Local Roads and Bridges
Presenting testimony on behalf of the two statewide associations of public works commissioners and highway superintendents was Randy Gibbon, P.E., Co-Chairman of the Legislative Committee for the New York State County Highway Superintendents Association (NYSCHSA). He was joined by Roger W. Wolfe, President of the New York State Association of Town Superintendents of Highways (NYSAOTSOH).
It was reported to the Assembly panel, chaired by Assemblyman David Gantt, that the twenty-year needs of the local system exceed both that of the MTA and State DOT. According to a recent study by the State Comptroller, local roads have a capital need of $175.2 billion. At the current funding levels, over $56 billion of this will go unfunded.
To drive this reality home, Gibbon and Wolfe reported that DOT just closed a State bridge on a town road in Wayne County. This bridge is a single lane truss typical of those that span the Erie Canal. Even though the bridge averages over 4,000 crossings per day, there is no plan to address the deficiencies to allow the bridge to be used while waiting for its replacement, scheduled for late 2012.
The highway chiefs predicted that this is not the first and unlikely to be the last of this type of incident. The closing of bridges now and then may appear to much of the general public as an isolated incident, particularly if the loss of a crossing does not directly impact them. But the deterioration that leads to such bridge closings is systemic. It is a reminder that current underinvestment makes it impossible to maintain even a 20th century transportation system, much less provide one that will allow us to be competitive in the current global economy.
The State's Five Year Capital Plan, developed by the State Department of Transportation, establishes a benchmark for funding transportation in New York at an absolute minimum level to maintain the current system. The funding levels for the Two Year Capital Plan approved by the State this year fell well below those prescribed by the Five Year Plan and further jeopardize the integrity of local roads and bridges, the superintendents warned.
Also alarming is the fact that 65% of revenues to the Dedicated Highway and Bridge Trust Fund (the primary mechanism for funding local road and bridge capital projects) goes to debt service, requiring State General Fund transfers of $700 million per year in order to keep the fund solvent.
Local Roads Matter! The highway groups hope that, partnering with the State and the public, New York can begin to rehabilitate and rebuild the local transportation system to where it once again can be a safe and efficient asset that helps to keep people, businesses and jobs in New York State.
A copy of the NYSCHSA and NYSAOTSOH joint testimony is available here.
Voters' Rights Upheld!
Through the course of the summer, NYSAOTSOH has followed four Town referendums which would have made the Town Highway Superintendent position appointed by the Board rather than elected. For the most part, the initial information given to voters suggested that this change was important and might even save the taxpayers money.
In each case, NYSAOTSOH sent a letter to the local newspapers as well as to local Association contacts in that county for distribution. The letter simply clarified that no monetary savings would result from such a change and that the voters would lose their voice with respect to highway services.
All four referendums were defeated!
The margin of success varied in each town. The measures failed by a small margin in the Towns of Danby (Tompkins County) and Sharon (Schoharie County). The vote was about 2 to 1 in the Town of Duanesburg (Schenectady County). And the Town of Ticonderoga (Essex County) defeated the measure by 976 to 280!
Congratulations and thank you to the many members who helped defeat these misguided referendums!
CHIPS FUNDING APPROVED!
Shortly after State Leaders failed to pass a Budget on April 1st the NYSAOTSOH and NYSCHSA Board members took the lead in letting our elected officials know the huge negative impact this was having on our local roads and bridges. With the State DOT's budget cut by over $200 million and no authorization to move this year's capital projects, we decided to get our CHIPs funding, we must call on our local program to be treated like the MTA's Capital Program. The letters below are just some of the examples of the message we delivered to state leaders. The MTA got their Capital Plan approved on June 1 and we got our CHIPS program approved on June 7.
Our CHIPS funding for this fiscal year is $363.1 million and Marchiselli is $39.7 million. Again, your individual locality's allocation should be very close to last year's funding. Click here to see the updated statewide CHIPS runs now. Please thank your state legislators for supporting our CHIPS funding. While we all know it's never enough to do what needs to be done, please keep in mind when you are talking to them:
* The State is facing a $9.2 billion budget gap
* The State Budget is more than two months late with no agreement in sight
* The DOT still doesn't have funding for their capital plan
Please contact us if you have any questions.
Examples of letters delivered to State leaders:
Letter to Governor Paterson 05/18/10
Letter to Governor Paterson 05/28/10
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