Thruway retains I-84 upkeep

[JetPhoto 626]

Sounds like FD's & EMS will still be able to get money for calls on the highway, for at least another year.

Thruway retains I-84 upkeep

By Judy Rife

Times Herald-Record

September 20, 2007

Albany — The New York State Thruway Authority yesterday approved an agreement to continue plowing the snow, collecting the litter and mowing the grass on Interstate 84 for another year.

The agreement, between the authority and the state Department of Transportation, becomes effective Oct. 30, the one-year anniversary of a political stunt that swapped the cost of maintaining I-84 for Thruway toll relief in Buffalo.

"We will continue to do everything we do now,'' said Betsy Graham, a spokeswoman for the authority. "Motorists won't notice any change in the level of service. We are firm in our commitment and the state police are firm in their commitment." Skip Carrier, a spokesman for the DOT, said the intent of negotiations between the agencies was always "to provide the kind of seamless transition that would maintain the motoring public's experience" on I-84. The two agencies still have to schedule a formal signing.

Neither Graham nor Carrier, however, could say what will happen on Oct. 31, 2008, when this one-year agreement expires — or sooner, if the authority's costs exceed the $11.5 million that the DOT has to spend on I-84.

The Thruway Authority and its dedicated state police unit, Troop T, have negotiated an ancillary agreement that allows troopers to continue patrolling I-84 despite the DOT's inability to cover the expense. But that agreement only runs through March 31, 2008.

State Sen. John Bonacic, R-C-Mount Hope, secured $11.5 million in the state's 2007-08 budget for the DOT to use in contracting with the authority for the continued maintenance of I-84. The authority's "bare pavement" policy — a level of snow removal that the DOT can't match — has won the agency many fans in the mid-Hudson.

Bonacic acted after his party's leader, Sen. Joseph Bruno, blindsided mid-Hudson Republicans with a $14 million gift of state tax money to the Thruway Authority.

The gift, on the eve of the 2006 elections when several Republicans in western New York were in tight races, was designed to cover the elimination of Thruway tolls in Buffalo for one year. The Republican-controlled Thruway Authority responded by making the toll relief permanent — and raising the money to cover the shortfall in subsequent years by returning maintenance responsibilities for I-84 to the DOT.

The Cuomo administration saddled the authority with I-84 in 1991, in one of those infamous "one-shots" to balance the state budget. The transfer allowed the authority to return I-84 to the DOT anytime after 1996 with one year's notice. Oct. 30, 2006, was anytime.