Assemblyman Chris Tague (R,C,I-Schoharie) joined other members of the Assembly Minority Conference in calling on the governor to ensure that the Consolidated Local Street and Highway Improvement Program (CHIPS), PAVE-NY, and Emergency Winter Recovery Fund remain fully funded, if their funding is not increased. This push to fund these programs comes after it was revealed the governor's proposed executive budget would cut all funding for the Emergency Winter Recovery Fund and shift a significant portion of CHIPS funding to signature projects as opposed to core preservation, which maintains local roads and infrastructure.

Despite an increase in unfunded state mandates placed on localities over the last decade, CHIPS base-level funding has remained stagnant since 2013. Local governments are responsible for maintaining about 87 percent of all roads in New York state and half of the state’s 18,000 bridges, of which 36 percent of bridges are deficient. Additionally, 38 percent of road pavements in the state have been rated poor or fair.

“Maintaining our roads and infrastructure means maintaining our economy and our community, and infrastructure funding, particularly CHIPS funding, has remained stagnant for far too long,” said Tague. “Cutting spending on our local roads only pushes that cost onto local taxpayers who have already been feeling the impact of the many unfunded mandates pushed onto localities in the last few years. Cutting the Emergency Winter Recovery Fund’s funding would be disastrous, and we should instead be talking about increasing CHIPS’ core preservation funding to keep our roads safe, create jobs, and avoid placing a further burden on local governments throughout the state.”

The proposal is attached.