Federal highway bill includes long-term funding for LI

A $325 billion federal highway bill allows transportation planners to address many of Long Island's long-term infrastructure needs but also strips away hundreds of millions in transit subsidies from the state, officials said.

After passing numerous short-term extensions, the new Paul Ryan-led House on Thursday approved the Surface Transportation Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2015, which will help fund road, bridge and transit projects in the United States for the next six years.

Despite widespread calls by transportation leaders to invest more money on crumbling infrastructure, the bill keeps funding levels flat and does away with a program that provided special transit funding for seven Northeast states, including more than $600 million for New York.

A Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman declined to comment on the House bill.

A loss for Northeast

An amendment removing the funding passed quietly Wednesday night, with no members from the affected states even attending the vote. One House aide said the last-minute timing of the amendment caught everyone by surprise and before members could be notified.

But all aides said it was likely to pass since only 64 of the 435 House members are from states in the high-density bus program.

"It is wrong for the House to single out the Northeast's transportation money and cut it so dramatically," Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement. "This will hurt LIRR and our bus service, and we must do everything we can to restore this awful cut."

Aides to Reps. Steve Israel (D-Huntington) and Kathleen Rice (D-Garden City), who both voted for the final House bill, said the best hope to restore the funding will be in a conference committee to reconcile the House and Senate versions of the bill.

Israel said in a statement that "while no compromise bill is perfect," the transportation plan "creates good-paying jobs and gives critical certainty to our state and local governments."

No increased funding

Despite the Highway Trust Fund teetering on insolvency, the bill does not raise the gas tax, which has remained the same, 18.4 cents per gallon, for more than two decades.

Instead, the bill, which only contains funding for its first three years, relies on more novel approaches to raising revenue, including by selling oil from the nation's reserves and privatizing IRS debt collection.

"Both bills are using budgeting tricks to move funds from things that aren't related to transport," said Rich Barone, director of transportation programs for the Regional Plan Association. "Nobody wants to really deal with the fact that the program itself isn't self-sustaining anymore."

Still, Long Island Contractors Association executive director Marc Herbst saw the bill's passage as good news because it could usher in the first bit of long-term transportation upgrades the Island has seen in years.

"Nobody looks at making serious improvements because they don't know if the funding will be there," said Herbst, who likened the region's current stopgap approach to infrastructure repairs to replacing a single shingle on a leaky roof.

"Now with the funding streams and long-term vision, there can be better planning," Herbst said. "It's not just the asphalt trucks and some rakers behind it."

Plans for LI

Herbst said a top priority with the new funding should be repairing and replacing aging Long Island Rail Road bridges and overpasses.

To that end, the highway bill includes a measure co-sponsored by Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley) to allow states, counties and towns to apply directly for federal funds to maintain and repair their bridges and overpasses, including Sunrise Highway and the Long Island Expressway. Currently, federally owned bridges are prioritized before state and county ones.

Zeldin, who sits on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said in a statement that the bill ensures that "our critical overpasses and bridges will once again have access to the federal funding needed to repair and strengthen our infrastructure."