Fund For Road And Bridges Raided: Report
The state continues to raid a fund dedicated for repair of roads and bridges to pay for operating expenses, leading to a deterioration of the state’s infrastructure, according to a report today from the state’s Comptroller’s Office.
Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said that since 1991, only 35 percent, or $11.6 billion, of the money in the state’s Dedicated Highway and Bridge Trust Fund went to repair the state’s roads and bridges.
The rest covered state debt payments as well as operating expenses at the state Department of Motor Vehicles and the Department of Transportation, DiNapoli said.
The trust fund was created in 1991 to fund the construction and development of state roads and bridges and was to be self-sustaining through taxes and fees. But starting in the 1994-95 fiscal year, the fund began paying debt for bonds from the state Thruway Authority, and later operating expenses for state agencies, DiNapoli said.
The report comes as Gov. David Paterson recently said the state doesn’t have the money to fund a $25.8 billion five-year capital plan for roads and bridges.
“This money should be going toward keeping our roads and bridges safe, not to fund state agency operations,” DiNapoli said in a statement.
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Why does this surprise anyone? It was all done right out in public in front of everyone’s eyes. Folks were content in doing whatever was necessary in NY so that taxes didn’t have to be increased. There was a big pile of money to be taken, and it was taken for whatever people thought was a good idea at the time. Our representatives did this to us. The people we elected did it and we continue to elect them. So in short, we did this to ourselves by not responsibly voting out hacks when they did what hacks normally do. Time to take responsibility for our own actions and vote the hacks out. Lets start voting in a few real business owners and people with demonstrated experience rather than someone who can get up talk a good line of BS. Our governor needs to go, as do a peck of the hack state rep’s and senators.