You Paid For It: Highway Fund to Nowhere
ALBANY, N.Y. (WRGB) - Governor Andrew Cuomo has for now scrapped his plan to charge New Yorkers $25 for new license plates that come out next April.
As we watch and wait to see if there's any change to that, the controversy over the plan brings back to light something we have told you about before -- the NYS Dedicated Highway and Bridge Trust Fund.
That's where, in part, any additional license plate fee money would go. It's also where the 45 cents a gallon state gas tax you pay at the pump goes.
But where it goes after it reaches that fund, is troubling to many -- and you paid for it.
That’s because in recent years, the fund has been dedicated to all sorts of things that have nothing to do with repairing highways and bridges.
It was established in NYS law in 1991. The law says the money shall be utilized for "...reconstruction, replacement, reconditioning, restoration, rehabilitation and preservation of state, county, town, city and village roads, highways, parkways, and bridges..."
Just one problem, only a small portion of the fund goes to any of those things.
NYS Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli has done audits of the fund in 2005, 2009 and most recently 2014. All have been highly critical of the fund. He tells us he still has serious reservations.
That’s because according to state records, over the past seven years 38.5% of the fund has gone to state operations -- administrative expenses at state DOT and DMV, and 38.7% has gone to state and local debt service. That leaves just 22.7% of the fund to repair the roads and bridges you drive over every day.
The comptroller calls the fund a “...cautionary tale about a missed opportunity for effective capital planning and funding.” He says the fund should be a lock box, a pay as you go fund. But state lawmakers have used it for other budgetary purposes for so long now, that it appears there is no going back.
We will learn more in the spring, as the State Legislature works to come up with a new capital plan for infrastructure projects.