A group of local highway superintendents along with local politicians are calling on Governor Kathy Hochul to increase funding for local highways and roadways. Interim secretary for the Erie County Highway Superintendent Association Jerry Sentz says he’s disappointed in the governor’s budget proposal which increases funds for state highways but none for local roads.
“When I first heard that she [Governor Hochul] had added $800 million to the state funds for highways, I was thrilled. Like, Wow, that's great. That'll really do a good job. But what I learned later on, as I dug into what she was proposing, all of that money is going to state roads. None of it, zero, is going to what we call local roads. Local roads are county roads, town roads, city roads, village roads. 87% of the roads in New York State are local roads, and 87% got no increase.”
State Assemblyman Paul Bologna expressed how the funding should be going to local infrastructure. Saying the localities would make better use of it.
“New York State has a tendency to over complicate these things. Really, we should be giving the money and the majority of the lion's share of our infrastructure and critical infrastructure funding to our localities, because, frankly, they know better than New York state how to deal with it. They know what their municipalities need.”
The large group of highway superintendents says they will be in Albany next week to lobby for the funding. The state budget is due by April 1st.
