Assemblyman Will Barclay (R,C,I-Pulaski) stood with local town and county highway superintendents today to advocate for more funding in the state budget for local roads, bridges and infrastructure. Barclay, a consistent supporter of our localities, called for more funding in the Consolidated Highway Improvement Program (CHIPS) in this year’s state budget and for a new, four-year, “State Aid to Local Bridge and Culvert Program.” Barclay said the proposed budget outlines major upgrades to Downstate infrastructure and said Upstate deserves its share of infrastructure dollars.

“Our families and businesses rely on our roads and bridges for work and commerce every day,” said Barclay. “We need more dollars dedicated to basic infrastructure and road repair projects to maintain our roads and help localities in the costs associated. Local governments are responsible for maintaining nearly 87 percent of roads in New York and half of the state’s 18,000 bridges.”

Last year, Barclay and his colleagues were successful in restoring Gov. Cuomo’s proposed $40 million cuts to CHIPS through the Winter Recovery funds. In fact, they were able to advocate successfully for another $10 million for the program, resulting in a total of $50 million for Winter Recovery funds.

In his 2016-17 executive budget, the governor proposed to spend $22.1 billion for the New York State Department of Transportation’s (DOT) budget over the next five years statewide. He also proposed $26.1 billion in taxpayer money for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (MTA) Capital Plan solely for the New York City-metro area in that same timeframe. Barclay said that, with the New York City-metro area receiving about $4 billion more than upstate, there needs to be parity.

Local advocates today called for an increase to the Consolidated Highway Improvement Program (CHIPS) by $250 million for a total of $688.1 million, and are seeking the creation of a new, four-year, $600-million “State Aid to Local Bridge and Culvert Program” to address locally designated bridge and culvert improvement projects statewide.