Issue Position: Saving the New York State Bridge Authority For Low Tolls and Local Control

Issue Position

In this year's budget, Governor Cuomo proposed to merge the New York State Bridge Authority into the Thruway Authority. This proposal would have drastically and detrimentally affected both the economy and the overall quality of life in the region.

The Bridge Authority runs five bridges - the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge, the Mid-Hudson Bridge, the Bear Mountain Bridge, the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge and the Rip Van Winkle Bridge. Tolls are kept low and the five bridges are all kept in good repair thanks to the Bridge Authority's regular and scrupulous maintenance.

These five bridges constitute a vital link between municipalities on both sides of the Hudson, offering residents a fast, safe, and reliable way to get to work, shop, attend school, and visit doctors and other services across the river from their homes. They are, indeed, our "main streets."

The proposal would have had the Thruway Authority gobble up the Bridge Authority. The Board of Commissioners of the Bridge Authority, all local Hudson Valley residents, would have no longer been in control. Tolls would have gone up dramatically.

I organized a contingent of our Democratic Assemblymembers from the Hudson Valley. We rallied community leaders. And together, we blocked this ill-advised proposal and saved the Hudson Valley's own bridge authority.

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