Over 20 Long Island county and state elected officials heard about the 2010-2014 MTA Capital Plan and how it would benefit the region during a legislative breakfast last Thursday at the Huntington Hilton in Melville.  The breakfast was hosted by the Tri-State Transportation Campaign and supported by members of the Long Island Transit Coalition, a group of planning, business, labor, transportation, health, civic and academic organizations fighting for increased transit funding on Long Island.

Tri-State Executive Director Kate Slevin and Marc Herbst, Executive Director of the Long Island Contractors’ Association, provided an overview of the capital program and the current status of funding for Long Island’s transit systems. The five-year program currently has a $10 billion funding gap.

Afterwards, a panel of advocates offered their perspectives on the plan. Long Island Federation of Labor’s Roger Clayman said the capital plan meant tens of thousands of jobs for Island construction workers, citing a recent report which showed that $1 billion in transit construction creates or supports almost 24,000 jobs. Rob Freudenberg of the Regional Plan Association pointed out that the MTA capital program is one of the largest investments the state will make on Long Island. The NY League of Conservation Voters’ Josh Klainberg discussed transit’s environmental benefits. Dan Perkins of the Long Island Association highlighted important projects for the region’s mobility, but said the Island’s economy ultimately depended on construction of the LIRR Third Track, which is not in the capital plan. Vision Long Island executive director Eric Alexander (a TSTC board member) said transit investment was critical to the success of Long Island’s downtowns.

Among the attendees was State Senator Craig Johnson (D-Port Washington)—the Senate Majority’s appointed representative to the MTA Capital Program Review Board—who attended the event although he was holding a hearing on the MTA Capital Program in Manhattan later that morning. Also attending were State Assemblymembers Michael Fitzpatrick (R-Smithtown) and David McDonough (R-Merrick), Suffolk County Legislature Presiding Officer William Lindsay, and other state and county representatives and legislative staff.

The good attendance was a sign that elected officials recognize the Capital Plan’s importance and provides hope that agreement on the Plan will be reached even with an estimated $10 billion gap.  In a release, Vision Long Island’s Alexander said, “It’s exciting to see bipartisan participation from our State and County officials supporting a progressive transportation agenda.”

The program’s fate now lies with the MTA Capital Program Review Board, whose four members must vote unanimously to approve the plan and send it to Albany for legislative approval, before the end of the year.

The breakfast was made possible through the support of the Rauch Foundation.

Image: TSTC.