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Upstate Pol Charges Public Works Funds Have Been Misused For Years The state has, for years, diverted as much as $750 million annually from a "dedicated" tax fund intended for bridge and highway maintenance and repair, using the money instead to cover unrelated budget costs, an upstate legislator said Tuesday. "We're raiding the fund and that's wrong," said Sen. Thomas Libous, a Broome County Republican, in announcing a bill with bipartisan support to end the practice. "I've been saying that for three years...but now it's a matter of public safety." Libous said the move gained urgency after the collapse of the Minneapolis bridge into the Missis-sippi River last week. Sen. John Sampson, who represents Canarsie and adjacent communities, said yesterday that it sounds like legislation he would support, but noted that since he has not yet seen the bill, he could not commit himself. Libous said the $3 billion fund created in 1991 now pays for dozens of budget items not related to maintaining bridges and highways, including snow and ice removal and Department of Motor Vehicle costs. The state comptroller has reported 55 percent of the fund was used for capital bridge and highway projects in 1994-95, but just 28 percent went to building or repairing bridges and highways in 2004-05, Libous said. The bill to make sure the gasoline taxes and other fees are used for bridge and highway work would be phased in over five years. There's cause for concern for the aging Brooklyn and Tappan Zee bridges to a span in Binghamton, because 60 percent of the state's bridges were built before 1970, said Libous, chairman of the Senate Trans-portation Committee. There was no immediate response from Gov. Eliot Spitzer on whether he would try to change how Republican Gov. George Pataki and the legislature allocated the fund. A spokesman for Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver had no immediate comment. Last Sunday, U.S. Senator Charles Schumer said the collapse of the 40-year-old Minneapolis bridge underscores a need for the federal government to devote more funding to the "urgent maintenance" of the nation's aging bridges and less to building new ones. Schumer said he would introduce legislation next month to double a proposed transportation bill appropriation from $5 billion to $10 billion for that sole purpose. "The urgency of maintenance has been made apparent by the Minne-apolis tragedy," Schumer said. "This disaster must be a wake-up call to get our nation's transportation infrastructure in order."
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