Observer-Dispatch
More than four years after a voter referendum required the city to spend $5 million annually on street repairs, the Utica Common Council is weighing a second consecutive year of reduced spending.
During its Jan. 20 meeting, the council discussed legislation to cut street repair spending to $3 million. Last year, the city budget approved $3 million on street repairs due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The pandemic remains a concern, as the city administration warned the council of possible shortages in materials to complete $5 million worth of work, including mill and pave, street reconstruction and repair.
There also are concerns about staffing to complete work, after work to replace all of the city’s streetlights with LEDs was put on hold for two weeks due to a coronavirus exposure, said Heather Mowat, the city’s budget director, at the Jan. 20 meeting.
ALBANY â State lawmakers questioned leading transportation officials Tuesday in the first of several hearings about the proposed 2021-22 budget after requests from localities for years to increase state funding to improve local streets and highways.
The joint state Legislature commenced 13 days of bi-cameral hearings Tuesday on the stateâs proposed $192.9 billion 2021-22 spending plan.
State officials project a $39 billion revenue loss over four years because of the COVID-19 pandemic, including losses of $11.5 billion in Fiscal Year 2021 and $9.8 billion in FY 2022. New Yorkâs revenue shortfall will mount to $39 billion over four years.
Members of the Assembly and Senate on both sides of the aisle asked state Department of Transportation Commissioner Marie Therese Dominguez why Consolidated Local Street and Highway Improvement Program funding has remained flat at $477.8 million annually for nearly a decade, and a Extreme Winter Recovery Reimbursement funds were elim
As Cuomo Banks on Federal Funds, Localities Grow Nervous New York counties face spending cuts totalling $163 million from school districts, libraries, nonprofits and human services for low-income families if the multibillion federal aid that Gov. Cuomo is expecting doesn’t happen. Tom Precious, The Buffalo News | January 25, 2021 | Analysis
(TNS) Receive from above, take from below. Such is the essence of one theme of the 2021 state budget plan unveiled last week by New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.
The Democratic governor s budget plan has a basic premise: Red ink will be washed away only if his request for a bailout from the federal government happens.
The Hawk Eye
HAMILTON, Ill. The Illinois Department of Transportation announced the 2021/26 Highway Improvement Program will fund improvements to the Keokuk/Hamilton bridge over the Mississippi River that connects the two towns in Iowa and Illinois.
The project is expected to raise the expanse leading up the the bridge on the Hamilton side, which has flooded for decades due to poor drainage, said Belynda Allen, Hancock County Economy Development executive director, who believes the improvements will help the area s growing economy including what she says are big things happening in Hamilton.
She worked more than a year with IDOT staff to obtain the funding. She had seen an inconvenient Keokuk/Hamilton bridge closure after starting her new job.
/ MyRadioLink.com
Rebuilding Illinois: Multiple projects tackled in 2020
DECATUR – The Illinois Department of Transportation announced today that multiple projects in the Decatur area are completed, underway or extending into future construction seasons, highlighting an ongoing commitment made possible by Gov. JB Pritzker’s Rebuild Illinois. In the Decatur area alone, five major projects represent a total investment of $35 million for the region, with $30 million coming from the historic and bipartisan capital program.
“Rebuild Illinois is not only about investing in infrastructure but about investing in people and communities as well. This first full year of Rebuild Illinois brought projects to the Decatur area that created jobs and invested in the local economy in a way that was sorely needed,” said Gov. Pritzker. “The work completed this year is just the start of many more local improvements that will build better and safer roads and bridges, while keeping communitie