LETTERS: LI construction work, tax votes
Bridges need work on LI
Your editorial "We can build big again" [Nov. 28] used a marquee piece of infrastructure, the Whitestone Bridge, as an example of what is wrong with investment in our region's construction needs. But Nassau and Suffolk residents do not need to leave Long Island to be subject to the dangerous effect of ignoring our infrastructure.
According to the state Department of Transportation, 61 percent of the bridges here have been declared either functionally obsolete or structurally deficient - five of those bridges having a similar rating to the Lake Champlain Bridge linking New York to Vermont that was closed and demolished last December because officials deemed it alarmingly unsafe.
Our federal and state legislators need to recognize that indifference toward infrastructure funding will lead to tragedy. Otherwise, motorists may no longer be able to travel across local bridges such as the Ellison Avenue in Westbury, Stewart Avenue over the Meadowbrook Parkway in East Garden City, Route 110 or Wellwood Avenue over Sunrise Highway or the Robert Moses Causeway.
Marc Herbst
Editor's note: The writer is executive director of the Long Island Contractors' Association.
Hold all tax votes in fall
Long Islanders have raw nerves about runaway taxes for schools, fire departments, libraries, etc., which are annually approved by a small percentage of voters.
A simple solution would be to enact a new state law creating an "all vote day." This would require that tax increases be presented on the same ballot as the November general elections; it would save money in election district payroll alone.
I predict that the November Election Day voters would never approve such outrageous budgets. In just one election cycle, these budgets would quickly come back in line with what we want and can afford.
Philip Butler
'It's depressing, it's frustrating' A Newsday investigation revealed that Grumman Aerospace knew toxic chemicals were leaking into the ground in Bethpage. Newsday Associate Editor Paul LaRocco and Deputy Editor David Schwartz explain.
