State Senator Tom O’Mara (R,C-Big Flats), Assemblyman Phil Palmesano (R,C-Corning), Assemblyman Chris Friend (R,C-Big Flats), Assemblyman Joe Sempolinski (R,C-Olean), Elmira Mayor Dan Mandell, Hornell Mayor John Buckley, and other local leaders have called on Governor Kathy Hochul and the Democrat leaders of the State Legislature to provide increased, critically needed state aid for local roads and bridges in the final 2025-26 state budget.
Joint Senate-Assembly hearings on the governor’s proposed $252-billion budget concluded this week. Hochul and the Legislature’s all-Democrat majorities are set to begin final budget negotiations throughout March. The deadline for approving a new state budget is April 1.
During a news conference Friday at the Town of Big Flats Highway Garage, the group of state and local leaders called on the governor and legislative leaders to keep strengthening New York’s commitment to local transportation infrastructure.
In a February 13, 2025 letter (see attached copy) to Hochul and legislative leaders, O’Mara, Palmesano, Friend, Sempolinski, and nearly 70 of their Republican legislative colleagues in the Senate and Assembly wrote, in part, “We once again stress that New York State’s direct investment in local roads and bridges through CHIPS remains fundamental. It deserves priority consideration in the final allocation of state infrastructure investment in the budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year…Local governments, for the foreseeable future, will continue to struggle to address budgetary demands in the face of the state-imposed property tax cap, rising pension, health care and highway construction costs, and unfunded state mandates, among other burdens… A stronger state-local partnership is the only solution to meeting the critical investment level needed to maintain and improve local roads, bridges, and culverts… Through the renewed, vigorous, long-term state investment we have outlined, we will finally move toward the safe and reliable local infrastructure we envision, an infrastructure that will serve as the catalyst for future community and economic development, job creation, and overall public and motorist safety.”
Ken Thurston, Schuyler County Superintendent of Highways and Facilities, said, “Local Highway Departments maintain 87% of New York’s 112,000 miles of highways and more than half of the states 16,000 highway bridges. Only 13% of the States highways are maintained by NYSDOT. It is deeply disappointing that the Governor’s executive budget contains no similar additional funding for our local highways and bridges despite continued explosive growth in construction and supply costs. It is critical that an additional $250 Million be added to the 2025-2026 budget for local highway programs. Every highway department relies heavily on these flexible funding sources which distribute vital and reoccurring state funding through a formula and should be spread to every local government in the state.”
O’Mara, Palmesano, Friend, Sempolinski and other state legislators, joined by local roads advocates from across the state, are highlighting their opposition to Hochul’s proposal to keep state funding at last year’s level for the Consolidated Local Street and Highway Improvement Program (CHIPS), the state’s primary source of funding for local roads, bridges, and culverts. They argue that the Hochul proposal fails to recognize the enormous impact inflation is having on the costs of construction and, consequently, on the budgets of local highway departments. Nationally, according to the Federal Highway Administration’s Highway Construction Cost Index, highway construction costs over the past three years have increased by 70 percent.
They’re also stressing the fundamental long-term need for greater state support. Local governments, excluding New York City, spent $2 billion on road maintenance and improvement in the 2020 fiscal year, according to the state comptroller. A 2023 study of local highway and bridge needs commissioned by the New York State Association of Town Superintendents of Highways (NYSAOTSOH) found that municipalities would need an additional $32 billion over 15 years to restore locally owned roads through repaving and improvements or $2.1 billion annually. In 2025, that need was updated to $2.69 billion a year, or $40.35 billion over 15 years, because of unprecedented inflation of construction materials costs.
Consequently, local roads advocates are calling on Hochul and legislative leaders to:
- increase the CHIPS base level funding by $250 million to a total of $848 million;
- consolidate five of the state’s local road assistance programs into two programs which would reduce the administrative burden and recordkeeping costs at the state and local levels; and
- increase the CHIPS bidding threshold from $350,000 to $1,000,000 — or eliminate the threshold all together – to give municipalities more flexibility to pursue the most cost-effective option to bid out or perform in-house projects.
They are also reiterating growing concerns over the impact of a state mandate that will, starting in 2027, require all new school bus purchases to be electric. New York’s 1,600 municipalities will be responsible for ensuring that the local road system is capable of handling the significantly heavier weight of electric school buses.
In a joint statement, O’Mara, Palmesano, Friend, and Sempolinski said, “The ‘Local Roads Are Essential’ coalition has worked long and hard over the past decade to strengthen New York State’s commitment to local transportation infrastructure. Now is the time for this state to ramp up its commitment to local roads and bridges. We have long stood with New York’s county and town highway superintendents, and local leaders, in support of this effort. We continue to believe this commitment is a fundamental responsibility and critical to the strength and success of local communities, economies, environments, governments, and taxpayers. We will do everything we can to raise our voices, raise awareness, and raise support for the local roads and bridges that are essential to New York’s future.”
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