Sen. Charles Schumer (D-New York) said in Old Westbury on Monday that funding for the repair of highways and bridges across the country – including more than 200 in Nassau County – would be cut on Aug. 1 if Congress did not vote on a bill to fund the federal government’s “highway trust fund.”
“We don’t want to have a highway shutdown,” Schumer said outside Old Westbury’s Village Hall. “We don’t need another self inflicted wound from Washington.”
He said the federal government’s “highway trust fund,” which is used to reimburse state and local governments for highway repair projects, is starting to run out of money.
“We’ve spent more of it than we have,” he said.
Taxpayers pay into the fund, he said, through the “gas tax” – about 18.6 cents of every gallon of gas goes to the trust fund.
Other money for the fund, Schumer said, comes from the federal government’s “general fund.”
Schumer said Congress needs to pass a “patch” bill that would allow for money to be placed into the fund until a long-term proposal can be voted on. There are currently two proposals in Congress, Schumer said – one that would place $9 billion in the fund through December and another that would place $11 billion through June of next year.
He said he would support “any bill.”
Schumer said there are currently 213 bridges and overpasses in Nassau County that are “functionally obsolete,” which he defined as a bridge or overpass that has seen an increase in the amount of cars that drive over it and needs to be updated to meet its demand.
He said one of the “functionally obsolete” overpasses included the Wheatley Road overpass, which stands near the Old Westbury Village Hall.
“Funding for these projects, including the one behind me, will come to a screeching halt on Aug. 1,” Schumer said.
The idea for the highway trust fund, Schumer said, started almost 100 years ago when Republican representative Henry Clay, of Kentucky, proposed the federal government build highways across the Appalachian Mountains.
He said partisan politics should not get in the way of money being placed into the fund.
“New York should not have to decide between delaying these construction projects and the corresponding jobs, and footing the bill for them without any guarantee they will be reimbursed,” he said.
Schumer said close to 12,400 construction jobs would be lost on Aug. 1, if Congress does not pass a bill in time.
Village of Old Westbury Mayor Fred Carillo thanked Schumer for advocating for funding to highway projects.
“Schumer brings home the bacon, the pork and the pig,” Carillo said.
Reach reporter Anthony O’Reilly by e-mail at aoreilly@theislandnow.com, by phone at 516.307.1045 x203 or on Twitter @reilly_anthony. Also follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/theislandnow.
