By Steve Levy
It looks like officials in Suffolk County have heard our concerns about a recent vote by members of the New York Metropolitan Transit Council (NYMTC) to move forward with regional projects while excluding a large number of important road projects for Long Island, including the fixing of the Oakdale merge.
We, and others, such as the LI Contractors Association Executive Director Marc Herbst, couldn’t understand how this would go through without objection from our Suffolk members on the board. Well, now County Executive Ed Romaine is stepping up to the plate and warning the state that he’s willing to use his veto on the council unless we get our needed road project approved.
It’s the same tactic I took as county executive almost two decades ago when I threatened to hold back on approving the Metropolitan master plan until we had more of our Long Island projects approved.
Some extras were incorporated, including plans to expand the Sagtikos Parkway. But even though they were included in the plan, nothing has happened since.
That’s why I’m glad that my proposal to have Long Island break away from being under New York City’s umbrella in the NYMTC is starting to gain steam.
The federal government continues to claim that we get our fair share because of the billions that come to NYMTC, but the overall majority of that money goes to New York City-related projects. We on Long Island get shortchanged for our huge road needs.
So I recommended we break away to have our own Metropolitan Planning Organization since we would be the third-largest city in the nation if we were classified as such.
We don’t get anywhere near the money that Los Angeles or Chicago does, even though our population is the same size.
So now, the Long Island Contractors Association, the county executive and many within our state and federal delegations are calling for a separate Long Island MPO. Its time has come.
We’re glad that County Executive Romaine is threatening to use his veto and hope that he and other officials will keep the pressure on to finally get our own MPO and the roadway improvements we deserve.