Band-Aid mode

Daily Point

On the road to Albany

Follow the Senate’s lead.

That’s what more than three dozen business, labor, tourism and political organizations are asking Gov. Kathy Hochul and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie to do, after the State Senate was the only one of the three budget negotiators to expand the state Department of Transportation’s capital program by an additional $2 billion per year. 

That funding would be added to the DOT’s five-year capital program that Hochul jump-started last year. Under Hochul’s proposal, the capital plan totaled $32.8 billion over five years — about $6.5 billion per year. If the Senate’s plan were to move forward, it would add $2 billion annually for the remaining four years.

That could fund improvements to roads and highways across the state, including on Long Island, and would bring those roads back to a so-called “state of good repair.” Besides filling potholes and making other repairs on the Island, such money could go toward bigger infrastructure projects, such as the infamous Oakdale Merge, upgrades to highway exits and entrances, and more. And it’s not just meant for state roads; the funds could be used for local roads as well.

Neither the Assembly nor Hochul came close to the Senate’s total. Hochul left the funding at the same level, while the Assembly added $100 million for the pothole repair portion of DOT’s budget.

So the advocates, including the Long Island Association, wrote a letter this week addressed to Hochul and Heastie.

“We strongly urge you to consider accepting the Senate’s one house proposal, which includes significant and necessary increases to the NYSDOT core and local highway budgets,” the letter said. 

Mike Elmendorf, who heads the Associated General Contractors of New York State and the Rebuild NY Now coalition, told The Point that the extra money is particularly important because of the “bite” inflation has taken from the existing funding stream. This year, he noted, inflation blew a $1.2 billion hole in the funding stream because of enormous increases in the cost of materials. 

“For too long we’ve been in Band-Aid mode,” Elmendorf said. “And with inflation we don’t even have money for enough Band-Aids.”

The coalition notes that the federal infrastructure bill passed last year allows state and local governments to utilize up to 30% of COVID-19 relief money for public transportation or highway infrastructure.

“While we understand the state’s restrained fiscal condition, we request that you use this or any other funding source you deem appropriate to increase funding for state and local highway infrastructure in your 2023-24 Executive Budget,” the letter concluded. 

Elmendorf said he and other advocates are hoping to appeal to Hochul, who has made her efforts to fix potholes and improve infrastructure a priority. But like so many advocates during budget season, he’s also being careful, applauding Hochul for the investments she’s already made.

“This is in no way a criticism of the governor,” Elmendorf said. “It’s an opportunity for a huge win for everyone.” 

— Randi F. Marshall @RandiMarshall

Pencil Point

Racing

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Reference Point

'Brooklyn Bums'

With the benefit of nearly 70 years of hindsight, the optimism seems quaint and naive.

“It looks as if it may actually happen,” Newsday’s editorial board wrote on March 23, 1956.

“It” being the goal of keeping the Brooklyn Dodgers in Brooklyn.

“Our Brooklyn Bums seem to be getting close to that new stadium they need and want so badly. Right now a bill is sitting on Gov. Harriman’s desk awaiting his signature which will create a new $30,000,000 sports center in Brooklyn,” the board wrote in a piece called “Bums & Ballparks.”

At that juncture, Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley had been trying for 10 years to find a replacement for aging Ebbets Field. O’Malley wanted to build and pay for the stadium on his own — he wasn’t requesting Buffalo Bills-style largesse — but he had been asking for assistance with getting the land, preferably at the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush avenues where numerous subway lines converged and the Long Island Rail Road had a terminal.

But city parks commissioner and development czar Robert Moses — you knew Moses was going to appear in this tale — refused to condemn the parcel, as O’Malley wanted, and recommended instead the site in Flushing Meadows in Queens that later would host the Mets.

Newsday’s board, in the meantime, was urging Gov. Averell Harriman to sign the legislation. And he did in April.

“We would have liked the Dodgers to move to Long Island, of course,” the board wrote. “However if they aren’t coming out here, at least we want them to stay close by.”

The board saw another silver lining in the Dodgers potentially taking up residence at Atlantic and Flatbush: “The sports center will also give a boost to the ailing Long Island Rail Road — which needs a boost as badly as anything on Long Island we know,” the board opined. “If the sports center goes through, a new terminal will be constructed for LIRR trains to take fans to and from the ball park. As of now, everything looks in order.”

Then the board channeled that combination of fatalism and optimism familiar to many Dodgers’ fans.

“But we are holding our breath,” the board wrote. “With the Dodgers anything can happen. They even won the World Series last year, didn’t they?”

The intrigue lasted for months more. O’Malley had the Dodgers play some home games in Jersey City in 1956 and 1957 and even sold Ebbets Field later in 1956 and leased it back for three years until a new stadium could (hopefully) be built.

Eventually, however, the complex logistics in New York, the chance to build his own stadium in Los Angeles, and the promising economics of a move to California led O’Malley and New York Giants owner Horace Stoneham to agree in 1957 to move west.

“Wait ‘til next year!” was the immortal cry of the Brooklyn faithful.

But by next year, 1958, the Dodgers were gone.

— Michael Dobie @mwdobie and Amanda Fiscina-Wells @adfiscina