Infrastructure money must be protected

Our Long Island state legislative delegation would be wise to heed the many admonitions over the years about not forgetting the past, as its members begin this year's state budget session.

Albany lawmakers will decide how to divvy up the $24.89 billion for highway, bridge, and transit infrastructure across the state over the next five years, emanating from the federal government's Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act (IIJA). A brief historical refresher may help protect our region and deter our delegation from repeating past slights of Long Island.

Time and time again, the shell game has proved to be a favorite sport for state funding. In 1966, for example, New York voters approved a constitutional amendment creating the state lottery system. That act required all money collected to be distributed for education. Although that requirement is honored, those dollars supplant other designated operating budget funds which then are used for other purposes than education. If you need proof, analyze your ever-burgeoning annual school property tax bills against the latest record-breaking lottery jackpots.

Albany played another shell game with a different funding mechanism in 2009, the last time the state's executive branch and both houses were controlled by the same political party. A long-standing highway capital funding formula was deemed secondary to "projects of regional significance." The formula was based on local lane miles (Nassau and Suffolk rank first and third on that front among counties in the state) and registered vehicles (both counties are the only ones outside New York City with more than one million each).

Long Island was the only region without a "significant project" funded. As a result, the region's traditional 23% regional funding split dropped about 10 percentage points.

Since then, the state has resisted adopting traditional long-term five-year transportation capital programs, blaming the instability of federal dollars emanating from Washington. During this period, the federal/state funding for roads has shifted from a 50-50 share to roughly today's split of the state covering 60% and the national government providing 40%. That shift has many Albany budgetary bean-counters drooling over the new federal transportation dollars as an opportunity to backfill the recent unbalanced state/federal share splits. Our legislators must prevent this new shell game.

Albany policy insiders are also bolstering the argument that the current annual transportation funding level of $6.1 billion is a high-water mark. They argue that everyone should be satisfied if that funding output remains stable for the next five years, ignoring the new influx of Washington dollars. Again, if allowed, this shell game will see the 43% federal funding increase for fiscal year 2022 disappear into the abyss.

Another discouraging sign of what might come is state budget director Robert Mujica's speech before the Business Council of New York State last month. During his presentation, he would not pledge to propose a five-year transportation program despite the IIJA's annual commitment of funding for that period. It sounds like an opportunity for history to repeat itself.

Long Island Assembly and Senate members need to study the past and not allow the fiscal gimmickry to repeat. Otherwise, we are doomed to continued suffering from Long Island Expressway potholes, parkway system flooding, Oakdale Merge and Sagtikos Parkway congestion, and other travel nightmares. Long Islanders deserve better.

This guest essay reflects the view of Marc Herbst, executive director of the Long Island Contactors’ Association.