Press release:
Assemblyman Steve Hawley (R,C,I-Batavia) attended a press conference Wednesday held by Sen. Tom O’Mara (R,C-Big Flats) and Assemblyman Phil Palmesano (R,C,I-Corning) to call for an increase in funding for local roads, culverts and bridges. The press conference called on the governor and Legislature to increase funding for the Consolidated Local Street and Highway Improvement Program (CHIPS) during this year’s budget negotiations.
“Preserving the safety of our roads, bridges and culverts is especially important to my district, where many small businesses and agriculture producers transport products,” Hawley said. “The past few winters have been considerably difficult and have taken their toll on our local roads and bridges. This funding is necessary to ensure the safety of our local business people and the families and school buses that travel these roads almost every day.”
The question Hawley and
The question Hawley and others should be asking is what happened with all the money they had for maintaining roads and bridges.. .Every year budgets on all levels {city ,county state] take tax payer dollars for infrastructure....Where does Hawley think more money will come from....The state will just raise more taxes ..What did these counties do with the increased sales tax from the high price of gas over the last few years..Genesse county added a surcharge on all car and truck registrations..I would say before they go asking for more money from the state find out what they did with the money they had to fix roads....In Batavia they repave a road and in a few years it falls apart..Richmond Ave is a good example...
They could stop approving
They could stop approving funds for the SAFE act. How much does that law,which hardly anyone in upstate NY wants costing us? Not to mention the money just lying around they can't figure out how to spend, that Doug referenced in another thread. I'm sure there's plenty of other boondoggles too.
We should have the nicest
We should have the nicest roads and best schools in the country with all the money the state makes on the lottery and gaming. They have a license to steal and they do!There should be plenty of money already.
Well it will be interesting
Well it will be interesting to see how much help is forthcoming. I can only advise that Assemblyman Hawley not make any deal to pass a budget with funding for the SAFE Act in exchange for a bone.
Let's face it the GOP Assembly members get NOTHING unless they sell their soul to the Democrats who hold such an impenetrable majority there. Just this afternoon I was monitoring Assemblyman Di Pietro's Facebook as he was posting the days procedings and voting on several items. Things like; term limits, rules reform, better transparency, eliminating middle of the night "messages of necessity" voting, televised sessions, a Bill that a simple majority [76] signatories deserves a floor vote, etc... ALL VOTED DOWN BY THE DEMOCRATIC MAJORITY!
https://www.facebook.com/david.dipietro.56?fref=ts&ref=br_tf
If Hawley, or any other state
If Hawley, or any other state representative, wants funding for infrastructure, they should take back the $30 million given to the NYS Police to create a database for tracking purchasers of ammunition across the state, which is a provision of the SAFE act.
The state police state, they don't have the technology necessary to create such a database, but they still hold $30 million of our tax dollars, and have had it since January of last year.
http://www.whec.com/article/stories/S3726922.shtml?cat=11217
Lets be honest...How much of
Lets be honest...How much of the 30 Mil do you really believe is left? I am betting NYSP spent 10 of it just to discover it was beyond their capability...The rest is pretty much gone, used on pet projects like defending the Governor from corruption charges.
It is pretty clear that the IDIOTS in Albany are out of control I think the time is long past that county governments and school districts should begin to pull back from the state and take care of their own business. This includes saying NO to unfunded mandates imposed be Albany.
In a Facebook blog on the
In a Facebook blog on the topic of the $30M in last years NYS Budget earmarked for NYSAFE, the chairman of SCOPE Genesee posted "We brought this up at our meeting with Ranzenhofer last Tuesday and basically was told there is no way to find out where all that money has gone. Also he kept telling us there is no way to tell how much in the budget is for the safe act. Same old Albany bull crap."
"No way to tell where the money has gone"... ??? I guess it's not surprising hearing this from Senator Ranzenhofer [just another empty suit with nothing but excuses]. I'd say that if the GOP majority in the Senate were doing it's job they would be demanding the Comptroller to find out where the money went. And while they are at it, have a little talk with Bharara... maybe he could help find the $$$.
Or maybe the GOP Senators don't want anyone looking to find the money... maybe it got redistributed as "pork" to the GOP gang in exchange for passing an 'on time Budget', with SAFE Act Funding in it. IT BETTER NOT HAPPEN AGAIN!"