FALCONER – A group of local and state lawmakers were in Falconer Friday morning to raise awareness about the need for more funding for road and bridge projects.
Rebuild NY Now, a broad-based coalition seeking to raise public awareness about the issues impacting New York State’s infrastructure, continued its campaign and call for parity by joining with local elected officials, members of organized labor, and private local businesses at the Chautauqua County Public Facilities garage in Falconer.
The group gathers to call on both the state Legislature and the Governor to include funding parity between the capital plans of the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) and the New York State Department of Transportation (DOT) in the budget.
A spokesman for Rebuild New York Now said the $26.1 billion proposed in the executive budget for the MTA and the $20.1 billion for DOT is not only not parity, it is the largest disparity in funding between the two systems since the historic parity agreement was reached.”
Senator Cathy Young (R – Olean) said that Parity in funding between the DOT and the MTA was always the rule until 2009 when lawmakers from New York City were able to divert a significant portion of the state’s transportation funding downstate. As a consequence, she said that Upstate as a whole has been outpaced to the tune of nearly $5 billion.
Senator Cathy Young was one of several individuals who spoke during the rally for increased transportation infrastructure aid on Friday, March 4, 2016.
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