Ryan: Roads need federal help

[Reddi Killowatt]

Ryan: Roads need federal help

State's mayors meeting in Albany

By Brian Liberatore

Press & Sun-Bulletin

1 Comment

 

 

BINGHAMTON -- Most people would rather have good roads than $600 in their pocket, said Binghamton Mayor Matthew T. Ryan. Criticizing President George W. Bush's plan for economic stimulus, which involves $600 tax rebate checks, Ryan said the federal government needs to start putting tax dollars back into infrastructure.

 

Ryan will join mayors from across the state today and Monday for a meeting in Albany of the New York State Conference of Mayors (NYCOM). Ryan said the group, among other issues, will press the need for more federal and state funding on infrastructure projects.

 

"I think it's going to take all of us all talking to the federal government to say we need a massive investment in our infrastructure," Ryan said. "States just can't afford it without more federal aid."

 

Ryan joins a chorus of elected leaders across the country. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg last month teamed with California's Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Pennsylvania's Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell to form Building America's Future, a non-partisan coalition for federal infrastructure investment.

 

The need in New York is daunting, according to state Department of Transportation Commissioner Astrid C. Glynn, who spoke Thursday at a DOT roundtable in Binghamton. Glynn estimated the state will need $175.2 billion in federal infrastructure funding over the next 20 years as the state's bridges, roads, railways, airports and other structures age.

 

"It's really a system under stress," Glynn said. "There is no way I can over-describe the importance of federal partnership."

 

The NYCOM legislative agenda also includes a renewed push for state pension reform, repeal of the Wicks Law -- a construction mandate dating to 1912 that requires state and local governments to award multiple construction contracts for virtually every public construction project -- and opposition to retiree health insurance mandates.

 

 

 

I want good roads AND $600.00 in my pocket. I wonder what makes him think that 'most people' would rather have good roads than $600.00? I want both, wouldn't ya'll?

[Tax&Spend]

The way the City's budget is going, pretty soon the only department that will have the funding available to get anything done will be the Fire Department. The sad thing, though, is that they’ll have a hard time getting anywhere in the City to do it.

 

Mayor Ryan should not be looking to the federal government (or the state government, either, for that matter) to provide him or this City with a "bailout" when his administration does not make it a budget priority to maintain, re-pave, and reconstruct our City's streets. If you look at the current City budget, you will see that General Fund spending on roadwork is minuscule (instead, the Ryan Administration looks to bonding [thus saddling future generations with an ever-increasing interest payment burden which, in the long term, only serves to increase costs and will make even less tax money available in the future to accomplish basic, necessary projects] to pay for what little roadwork the Mayor will accomplish). At the same time, some of this money will be squandered on unnecessary project designs, such as the proposed downtown roundabout (when you go to the St. Patrick's Day parade next weekend, try to imagine how the parade would get past a roundabout, as well as how wide-bodied fire trucks and ambulances won't be able to pass SUVs in narrow 14'-wide lanes [especially if there are mounds of snow piled alongside them in winter] created by excessive curbing and medians planted with trees).

 

If this City's budget showed that infrastructure maintenance was a REAL priority (instead of squandering what federal dollars our City does receive non-productively on frivolous and/or redundant Planning Department and Economic Development positions, non-essential projects [roundabout, riverwalk, downtown wi-fi, GPS for City vehicles, etc.] as well as cronyism such as risky BLDC loans and contracts to insiders [structured in ways that escape competitive bidding requirements]), maybe Mayor Ryan's plea would have some credibility.

 

Were the City to make a commitment to spend what it ought to in order to carry out a systematic 15-year program/cycle for street maintenance (so that ALL City streets would routinely be kept in good condition), that would go a long way toward creating good-paying family-supporting middle-class jobs in our community and would be a tremendous boon to economic development (after all, better roads are "safer streets" that are less likely to encourage criminal activity and make a more inviting "first impression" on potential business visitors and residents, and the good-paying engineering, Public Works, and construction industry jobs that would be funded would help promote stable neighborhoods, home ownership, and an increased customer base for local businesses), much more so than whatever impact (I don't see it, do you?) current "initiatives" and "pacts" are having.

 

[Guest Mr Positive]

Is this jerk Ryan for real?

 

Ryan can't maintain our roads because the federal government is going to give taxpayer 600 dollars of THEIR OWN MONEY BACK?

 

Give me a break.

 

He has a tax levy that's supposed to raise the money necessary to maintain roads and infrastructure.

 

What he and every other elected official ought to be working on are ways to increase assessed property values, get more properties back on the tax rolls and make Binghamton more inviting to businesses and young families.

 

Everything he's done since taking office has had the exact opposite effect.

 

How have vegetable gardens raised property values and increased the tax levy?

 

How has his deliberate expansion of non-profit housing schemes with his buddies Tim Grippen and Jerry Willard raised property values?

 

What kind of negative effect has Binghamton's significant increase in violent crime since he took office had on the city's ability to attract people and investment?

 

All he is doing is looking to pass the buck and shift the blame for his own failures do his own job right here in his little neck of the wood where he is in charge.

 

Never mind blaming Washington....worry about your own problems, resolve your own issues first before you tackle federal tax policy.

 

You can't even maintain your own local roads and keep a 4 block area of downtown clean....and YOU want to lecture Washington on federal tax policy?

 

Have another beer, you idiot.

[Guest Guest]

Is this jerk Ryan for real?

 

Ryan can't maintain our roads because the federal government is going to give taxpayer 600 dollars of THEIR OWN MONEY BACK?

 

Give me a break.

 

He has a tax levy that's supposed to raise the money necessary to maintain roads and infrastructure.

 

What he and every other elected official ought to be working on are ways to increase assessed property values, get more properties back on the tax rolls and make Binghamton more inviting to businesses and young families.

 

Everything he's done since taking office has had the exact opposite effect.

 

How have vegetable gardens raised property values and increased the tax levy?

 

How has his deliberate expansion of non-profit housing schemes with his buddies Tim Grippen and Jerry Willard raised property values?

 

What kind of negative effect has Binghamton's significant increase in violent crime since he took office had on the city's ability to attract people and investment?

 

All he is doing is looking to pass the buck and shift the blame for his own failures do his own job right here in his little neck of the wood where he is in charge.

 

Never mind blaming Washington....worry about your own problems, resolve your own issues first before you tackle federal tax policy.

 

You can't even maintain your own local roads and keep a 4 block area of downtown clean....and YOU want to lecture Washington on federal tax policy?

 

Have another beer, you idiot.

 

Matt rarely drinks, no...no...he never drinks, that's it, he never drinks, never, ever.

 

[Couch Potato]

Well, Mr. Pontiac-"We Are Driving Excitement!"-mrc1, I think you're generally on the right track, but "Rainbow Ryan" forgets that most "typical families" of wage-earners with a mother, father, two kids (rounded down to the nearest integer [i don't want to provoke any cries of "child abuse!" here]) and a pet will get $1,800 (3x $600) BACK from the IRS (who took it from their hard-earned paychecks in the first place).

 

And, if we took a poll (sorry, I don't know how to make that feature work on here yet), I'm sure these families don't want to give that money away to a federal bureaucracy that might (when it gets around to it) maybe trickle some small percentage of it back to local governments with all kinds of strings attached to it. (Look at the mess we have with federal CDBG monies and all the rules that must be dealt with -- almost 10% of the grant goes to complying with the rules and the accounting and documentation needed to prove the rules were complied with).

 

I can't believe that the Mayor's Executive Assistant, who so desperately wants a double-barreled impeachment at the federal level, could possibly want people to be forced to forego their rebates and give THEIR MONEY back to the federal government he so steadfastly opposes rather than let them spend it here locally, where it might have some positive economic effect (as long as people refrain from spending it on goods "Made in China").

 

What Rainbow Ryan should do is take the $2,000,000 he wants to fritter away on a downtown roundabout and find a way to use it for real street work projects in our City. If the post above is correct (about fire trucks and ambulances not being able to get through narrow road lanes on the proposed plan), then we'll be safer, too!

 

Why is it that the Ryan Adminstration seems to want to waste so much of its time on seemingly everything other than providing City residents (taxpayers and voters alike) with the basic services like good roads which should be its first priority?

[Couch Potato]

Hey, Mr. Pontiacmrc1 -- I figured out how to upload a poll onto BC Voice!

 

You can either go to <http://bcvoice.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=925> or scroll down the topics to find the one named "Take the 'Couch Potato Poll'" with a green briefcase and a question mark in a blue circle next to it in the left margin and vote your opinion! (The topic may be "down a few pages" after a day or so if no new reply posts are made to "bump" it back toward the top).

[Guest Guest]

MATT RYAN IS A MENTAL DEFECT.

[Stretch]

Hmmmm, is it a contagious disease, birth related, or does it happen when struck by a blunt object?

[Guest Guest]

MATT RYAN WAS A PUBIC DEFENDER

[Guest Guest]

i had a post here on this subject earlier today now im looking back and its gone? i just love the way the moderators delete post they dont like.

my post wasent attacking anyone but ryan and his foolish choices.

[The West Sider]

Hey world, were Binghamton and we mean business!

 

Let's form several ad hoc committees about every conceivable (inconceivable) subject and talk about it. Oh wait, we already did that. My bad.

 

TWS

[Guest Neighborhood-Disassembly]

You're wrong, TWS. There's no committee on roadwork or infrastructure upkeep that I remember reading about.

 

I wonder why? (Maybe it's because that costs money the City doesn't have and the other so-called committees and commissions are, SUPPOSEDLY, geared toward saving money). Rumor has it that the City will do a bunch of "mill and pave" street work in the next two years (as opposed to more extensive reconstruction work). It won't last, but it will certainly "look good" if you're campaigning for re-election in 2009.

 

As to the "other commissions", if they are formed up with the same kind of "looneys" who Mayor Ryan consulted with when he concluded that "most people" would rather have "good roads" than have their $600 federal tax rebate in their pockets, we're all "DELETED again".

 

 

[OP.]

I dont really like ryan but he has a point the roads are bad so arnt the water lines that keep breaking under them my sidewalk is 30 years old and looks like crap. maybe we pull hundreds of billions out of iraqs pocket and use it on infrastructure.

[The West Sider]

I dont really like ryan but he has a point the roads are bad so arnt the water lines that keep breaking under them my sidewalk is 30 years old and looks like crap. maybe we pull hundreds of billions out of iraqs pocket and use it on infrastructure.

 

Don't be silly. The solution is clear. Wifi.

 

TWS

[Reddi Killowatt]

I dont really like ryan but he has a point the roads are bad so arnt the water lines that keep breaking under them my sidewalk is 30 years old and looks like crap. maybe we pull hundreds of billions out of iraqs pocket and use it on infrastructure.

 

You're absolutely right. The roads in the City of Binghamton are crappy. What the city needs to do is budget money to have the roads fixed. It kinda amazes me, I remember reading about that tobacco settlement money, and how the county wanted to use it to fix up some old building somewhere, and BCC wanted to use some of it to build a communications center. Why couldn't they have used that money to fix roads and bridges in this area? That's one thing that didn't make any sense to me what-so-ever.