Let’s just look at a few of the things we have discovered and the more we dig the worse it gets.
$400 Million that never made it to the thruway authority that was reimbursed from the Federal Highway Funds. $80 Million a year thrown at the Canal System? What does canals have to do with modern day transportation? NOTHING! $10.6 Million profit just on the Grand Island Bridge tolls for one year. $3 Billion that was set up as a dedicated bridge/highway fund in the 90’s by Governor Pataki, this was ransacked by our Albany politicos at a rate of $750 Million a year and only 20% ever made it to the dedicated purpose which is the bridges and roads. We should never question why our roads and bridges look like they do.
The most egregious is the reimbursement of our federal highway funds. The NYS DOT applied for and received 1.4 Billion from the Feds. They billed for ALL the Interstate system including the entire NY State Thruway system, I 84 and I-287. Out of $1.4 billion only $19 Million made it to the thruway system.
The other is the I-84 and the I-287 was sold to the thruway system by the state for millions of dollars in bonds passed by the thruway authority and now we pay $127 Million every year in debt service…. Yes we bought something we already own. Just gotta love NY and our corrupt system.
Follow the NYS Thruway Tolls Money Trail
You are already paying a fortune at the pump, now get ready to hand over more cash at the toll booths. But, where will that extra money go? News 4’s Ellen Maxwell follows the money trail.
Developer Carl Paladino and Activist Rus Thompson have been investigating the NY State Thruway Authority for more than a year now. They were outraged to hear the thruway authority is looking to raise tolls 20-percent more by the year 2010. Through Freedom of Information Act requests, the two have been following a trail of money.
Paladino says the thruway authority purchased two roads downstate from the state DOT in the 1990’s.
Carl Paladino, Ellicott Development, “They bonded since 1996, 2.7 billion dollars, in bonds, which they used to buy I-84, I-287, and the canal system. They used that money to buy those things from the state. The state took that money and went and spent it on its other programs.”
Now, the thruway authority pays millions of dollars in debt financing every year, in addition to the cost of maintaining those toll free roads. Paladino also discovered that the state DOT receives a sizable amount of money from the federal government every year to help pay for maintenance and repair costs of state roads, including the thruway system. It’s reimbursement for federal taxes on gasoline.
Rus Thompson, nogitolls.com, “Last year they applied for and received 1.4 billion dollars. If you look at the whole entire interstate system, they billed for the whole thruway system and all the interstate systems across NYS.”
The state DOT’s Chief Financial Officer says, of that 1.4 billion dollars, only about 50-million was for thruway run roads. The DOT gave the thruway authority 39-million dollars in 2005 and 19-million dollars last year to help pay for maintenance.
Michael Novakowski, NYS Dept. of Transportation’s Chief Financial Officer, “Where we try to put the money is where it does the most benefit for the traveling public as a whole. For NY’ers as a whole, as opposed to, if we get money from a certain road, it has to be put into that road.”
Paladino and Thompson say the DOT should absorb the thruway authority to help keep the costs of tolls down.
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Tags: grand island tolls
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I am not sure what the heck is going on, Rus. I think as we move along, we need to find a way to get the Feds involved, I really hate to say that.
I think that something fishy is really going on, and to say “It’s being done all over the place” doesn’t make it right.
Many states do exactly the same thing, perhaps a movement toward a Federal investigation, if it can be done, could force some real progress.
I’m just sayin’…
Get the feds involved? No, they wouldn’t want you to find that what smells fishy is this fish rots from the head.
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