Governor Andrew Cuomo (Courtesy of the Governor's Office)
When New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday that he would set up a $15 billion fund to rebuild 100 bridges and 2,000 miles of road, there was delight in many quarters -- but in his long list of projects, the governor never said the word "transit.”
New York, like the rest of the country, has a badly crumbling infrastructure. Thirty two percent of the state's bridges are rated deficient; 40 percent of its roads are fair or poor, and 83 percent of the state's parks and dams are in disrepair, according to the Governor's address.
Just two years ago, a bridge across lake Champlain in upstate New York had to be abruptly closed because engineers deemed it unsafe. And the state’s transit system faces a yawning $10 billion gap in its capital budget.
On Wednesday, the governor said he'd set up a single fund to coordinate and pay for all major projects, funded with state seed money and leveraging private investment, at a rate, Cuomo projected, of 1 to 20.
But transit advocates were dismayed by Cuomo’s glancing over public transportation.
“While the governor is right to call for greater investment in infrastructure, Albany cannot continue to give short shrift to funding transit across our state,” said Transportation Alternatives Executive Director Paul Steely White. “Public transit projects create a jobs dividend that stretches from the five-boroughs to upstate New York.”
Cuomo first introduced the idea of an infrastructure bank during his tax proposal, which passed last month. In his state of the state he offered more details, but the governor has yet to release a full-blown plan.
“We need to see the details," said Kate Slevin of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign. Her group has expressed deep concern over one of the governor's marquis projects -- replacing the Tappan Zee bridge - which at this point doesn't have room for trains or special bus lanes.
The idea of having one entity make funding decisions won praise from planners: “The state has really been substandard in capital construction,” said the Citizens’ Budget Commission Vice President Elizabeth Lynam. “It’s a long time coming that they tried to orchestrate that.”
“If you put together a board that looks to state infrastructure interests – not just political interests — that can be very strong,” added City College of New York Professor Robert “Buz” Paaswell. But Paaswell said setting up a fund would be very complex — since authorities can legally borrow, while the state Department of Transportation cannot.
Award–winning journalist Andrea Bernstein is the Director of the public radio Transportation Nation project, a partnership with WNYC, The Takeaway, Marketplace, WAMU (Washington, DC), WMFE (Orlando), KUHF (Houston), YPR (Montana and Wyoming), and KALW (San Francisco). She is also a regular guest–host on the Brian Lehrer show.
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