Letters to the Editor/Op-ed Pieces
August 9, 2010
One Bridge Fixed...but our infrastructure needs demand new funding
New York Post
Whaddya know? You can get there from here.
Today, the new Willis Avenue Bridge is due to be eased into place, completing its carefully planned journey by barge to its permanent home. It will replace a structure built in 1901 and now one of the lowest-rated bridges in New York City. The replacement arrived literally in the nick of time. More than 70,000 vehicles a day use the bridge, which has been past the point of no return for years. Yet this is just one success story among a limitless need to replace and upgrade our transportation network. These days, it's all too common for infrastructure projects to be put on hold, delayed or cancelled.
We're going from bad to worse -- and fast. Earlier this year, the transportation think-tank TRIP released a report highlighting the crisis state of New York's infrastructure. Some 82 percent of major roads in the city are in poor condition, and 35 percent of bridges are structurally deficient. Traffic congestion costs the average driver 44 hours a year. A lack of funding is delaying such critical projects as the renovation of Kosciuszko Bridge and the expansion of the Major Deegan Expressway, while officials are reducing the scope of other projects so that they only meet immediate needs and provide no room for growth. The state Department of Transportation and MTA five-year capital programs face a $20 billion funding gap over the next five years.
Too many elected leaders opt to postpone the decisions to launch genuine infrastructure improvements because they don't want any vote in favor of a tax hike coming anywhere near their names -- and are also unwilling to fully disclose to their constituents how the "dedicated" taxes they already pay are diverted to other uses. Our dedicated highway and bridge trust fund is broke - with 37.7 percent of its revenues over the last 16 years having gone to cover state operating expenses rather than to pay for the repairs and other basic work it was set up to fund.On top of that, the state collects $1.15 billion a year in gasoline-sales taxes, supposedly to fund transportation needs -- yet the money instead goes to the general fund, never to be seen when it comes time to fund a road, bridge or transit project.
The problem is not exclusive to New York. Federal transportation policy is stuck in its own holding pattern because no politician wants to venture near the hot-button issue of raising the gasoline tax, the proven generator of user fees that have paid for our transportation infrastructure since 1956. The continued deterioration of our ability to move people and goods has chilling implications for America's economy. A partial solution is found at the pump. Without question, taxes have become the bane of our society -- yet few can offer an alternative to gasoline taxes as a funding source to repair the roads that move our economy. Yes, the public has every right to be cynical that gas taxes will yield a smoother, safer ride -- since officials already siphon off dedicated highway-trust money for other government spending. To win public acceptance of these taxes, infrastructure advocates need to do far better at proving the direct connection between the taxes charged at the pump and the condition of our roads and bridges. And the revenue must go to irrevocable trusts that will reliably direct the taxes to the specific purpose they were raised for. Organizations like the US Chamber of Commerce, the American Trucking Association and AAA are now united in support of a gas-tax increase to fund transportation improvements - because they all recognize that safe roads and bridges keep the economy and the drivers moving.
Overall, Americans are paying the lowest gasoline taxes since the early days of the automobile. Federal fuel taxes have lost 33 percent of their purchasing power since the last increase in 1993 -- yet there's plainly no support for a new hike. Meanwhile, states continue to pilfer from gas-tax trust funds and underfund capital programs. Elected officials face a simple choice: Either preside over a crumbling and often dangerous transportation infrastructure -- or build political support for a funding structure that can do the job, and so strengthen our city, our economy and our future. The arrival of the new Willis Avenue Bridge is a dramatic demonstration of a success that's been years in the making. We can get there from here. But we need to be willing to pay for it.
Denise Richardson is the managing director of the General Contractors Association of NY.
April 4, 2010
Paterson plays a rotten game of 'chicken': Gov is putting thousands of construction jobs at risk
NY Daily News
There is a new and highly dangersous blood sport being played in Albany, with politicians using needed road and bridge projects - and the hardworking construction tradespople who've been tasked to fix them - as their pawns.
It must stop, before thousands more New Yorkers in our already suffering state lose their jobs.
Gov. Paterson, with the complicity of the vacationing Legislature, has decided to stop payments on all state-funded road and bridge construction projects until the Legislature approves a new state budget. It's a ruse of course, as the dollars put into the pipeline for these crucial projects have been long accounted for.
Paterson doesn't seem to care. Instead, he hopes to deepen the crisis environment in Albany to the point where legislators have no choice but to approve his spending plan. Whoever you think is right in the larger busget fight, this game of chicken will only serve to hurt the contractors that have invested their financial and sweat equity in keeping New York's roads and bridges in what the state considers acceptable condition.
Worse, it threatens to aggravate the job situation just as we could be on the cusp of turning the corner. The affected New York construction companies employ around 5,000 workers. They had played by all the rules - competitively bidding on public contracts, laying out their own money for advance expenses and hiring staff - only to be told to "never mind."
It's a particularly bitter irony that this is happening just a few months after many in government were cheerleading new investments in building and maintaining infrastructure.
What is particularly ominous for these companies is that, under the terms they signed with the state, they are not even allowed to stop work for nonpayment. That means they have to keep working on these multimillion-dollar projects without any assurance of ever getting late payments from a state facing a fiscal crisis.
No other industry would ever sign such a document, but the construction companies have no choice if they wish to participate in building New York's infrastructure.
A key executive at Halmar International, Chris Larsen, has stated he will have little choice but to shut down the $407 million repair job currently underway on the decrepit Alexander Hamilton Bridge if the issue isn't resolved soon. He tells me that he and his partners can't possibly float the $10 million monthly expense of repairing this crucial span that supports I-95 over the Harlem River.
That bridge repair project, which puts some 250 construction men and women to work, is just the tip of the iceberg. Some albany insiders are advising construction companies to take a deep breath and play along with this political dance, no matter how destructive it may be. Yet the reality is no one knows any longer where these dysfunctional Albany policies will take the state.
New York needs to leverage this fiscal crisis into an opportunity to create a substantive change.
Instead, the governor and the Legislature seem prepared to do everything in their power to avoid harming the sensitivities of the public sector unions - agreeing to years of pension "sweeteners," excessive raises, no-layoff pledges and the like. Meantime, when it comes to private secotr unions, they are prepared to watch thousands of workers lose their jobs. The contrast is infuriating, and the consequences are tragic.
—Denise Richardson
Managing Director
General Contractors Association of New York
January 10, 2010
MTA: don't eat the seed corn
Crain’s New York Business
Efforts to pressure the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to reallocate money that's now in its capital budget to offset shortfalls in its operating budget are a recipe for disaster. While this scenario might solve an immediate cash crisis, history has shown that in the long run, it hurts the MTA, harms taxpayers, burdens riders and negatively impacts the workforce. The MTA is beginning the year without an approved capital plan for 2010-14. There is now $50 million in the operating budget for capital expenditures, and these dollars will be needed if the MTA is to continue with current capital expenditures and have any chance of drawing upon any new federal funding that may come its way.
We also must recognize that as New York City's construction industry unemployment continues to rise, the MTA capital program is one of the only sources of new construction work in the metro area. More than ever, the short-fall in the payroll tax proves that New York state needs every private-sector job it can create—and the MTA capital plan is critical to this effort.
—Denise Richardson
Managing Director
General Contractors Association of New York