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August 7, 2007

Senator: NY diverts $750 million from highway repair fund

By MICHAEL GORMLEY

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — The state has for years diverted as much as $750 million annually from a "dedicated" tax fund intended for bridge and highway maintenance and repair, using the money instead to cover unrelated budget costs, state Sen. Thomas Libous said Tuesday.

"We're raiding the fund and that's wrong," the Broome County Republican said in announcing a bill with bipartisan support to end the practice. "I've been saying that for three years ... but now it's a matter of public safety."

He said the $3 billion fund created in 1991 now pays for dozens of budget items not related to maintaining bridges and highways, including snow and ice removal and Department of Motor Vehicle costs. The state comptroller has reported 55 percent of the fund was used for capital bridge and highway projects in 1994-95, but just 28 percent went to building or repairing bridges and highways in 2004-05, Libous said.

The bill to make sure the gasoline taxes and other fees are used for bridge and highway work would be phased in over five years. Libous said the move gained urgency after the collapse of a Minnesota bridge into the Mississippi River last week. It took only seconds for the eight-lane, 1,900-foot Interstate bridge to collapse. It opened in 1967.

There's cause for concern in New York, from the aging Brooklyn and Tappan Zee bridges to a span in Binghamton, because 60 percent of the state's bridges were built before 1970, said Libous, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee.

There was no immediate comment from Gov. Eliot Spitzer on whether he would try to change how the fund was allocated by Republican Gov. George Pataki and the Legislature. A spokesman for Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver had no immediate comment.

Libous released data that shows 2,206 of the state's 7,604 bridges were rated deficient last year, a consistent number over the last three years. He also said more than 1,000 of the bridges were built between 1910 and 1936.

Shoring up budget shortfalls by shifting funding from so-called dedicated funds isn't new for New York governors and the Legislature. A state environmental protection fund created to buy and protect open space has been used in past years to fund day-to-day expenses.

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