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The Day After: New Landscapes in NY, CT, and Across the Country

Yesterday’s elections have produced a changed landscape in parts of the region and across the country.

New York

New Yorkers resoundingly voted in Andrew Cuomo as the state’s next governor, to the benefit of sustainable transportation efforts. Cuomo’s recently released “green agenda” whole-heartedly embraces smart growth, and the governor-elect is on record as supporting a state complete streets law.  The biggest policy challenge for the governor will be transit funding: During the campaign Cuomo said essentially nothing about how to address the 3 unfunded years of the MTA’s 5-year capital program. Cuomo must also tackle the Tappan Zee Bridge/I-287 highway and transit project. The need for a new bridge and effective transit across the corridor is clear — but with a projected cost of $16+ billion and no identified funding sources, something may have to give.

The State Senate’s future still hangs in the balance, with some suggesting the chamber could be headed for a 31-31 tie or a Republican takeover. Any effort to address the state’s transportation funding problems will have to pass the state legislature; many Senate Republicans ran on promises to repeal the payroll tax passed last year to fund transit, while Senate Democrats rejected East River bridge tolls last year. One still unresolved race is the one between Sen. Craig Johnson and Jack Martins in Nassau County. If Johnson loses, there will be a vacant spot on the MTA’s Capital Program Review Board.

In the U.S. Senate, voters sent pro-transit senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer back to office. New York’s delegation has been at the forefront of so-far-stalled efforts to maintain the $230/month transit commuter tax benefit and win operating assistance for transit agencies.

Five of the state’s U.S. House seats switched hands, including Rep. Michael McMahon’s Staten Island/Brooklyn seat.

Connecticut

Connecticut’s Secretary of State announced today that former Stamford mayor Dan Malloy has pulled out a tight win over Tom Foley to be the state’s next governor, though Foley has said he may contest the results.  In answers to a TSTC gubernatorial survey, Malloy said he would support a “fix it first” approach that prioritizes road and bridge repair over expansion, and is a big supporter of transit-oriented development and rail.

In the State Assembly, several members of the House lost their seats, including Thomas Kehoe (D-Glastonbury), a long-time champion for pedestrians and cyclists.  All five of the state’s U.S. House Representatives kept their seats.

New Jersey

There were no statewide races in New Jersey; Rep. John Adler was the only member of the state’s House delegation to lose his seat, to Jon Runyan.

In Tenafly, the “nos” won a non-binding ballot question asking borough residents if they supported the Northern Branch project to extend the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail into Bergen County.

Federal

Obviously, the biggest news coming out of yesterday’s election was the Republicans’ big win in the House.  It’s not clear yet what this will mean for the next 6-year federal transportation bill.  House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Jim Oberstar (D-MN), who had been the main architect of the next federal bill, lost his election.  His likely replacement as the head of the committee, John Mica (R-FL), is a believer in transit and high-speed rail, according to a profile at Streetsblog Capitol Hill. But many national Republicans are not.

Democrats held the Senate, and Sen. Barbara Boxer, who chairs the Environment and Public Works Committee (the Senate committee where the transportation bill will originate), won her election.

As the Transport Politic points out, the gubernatorial races in Ohio, Wisconsin, and Florida were won by Republicans who campaigned against the Obama administration’s high-speed rail program.  While Florida governor-elect Rick Scott softened his opposition to rail late in the campaign, it’s quite possible that at least one of these governors will give their rail grant back to the federal government.  If that happens, proponents of projects in other states — like the New Haven-Springfield rail line — should be poised to grab some of those funds.

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[…] MTR, RPA Survey the Transpo Landscape After Election Day […]

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