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Trump budget would cut roads fund that would pay for I-81 in Syracuse, Schumer says
The Syracuse Post-Standard ^ | February 13, 2018 | Mark Weiner

Posted on 02/15/2018 1:07:18 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump's $4.4 trillion budget plan would slash funding for interstate highways, jeopardizing New York's plan to transform a stretch of Interstate 81 in Syracuse in the next decade, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer said Tuesday.

The plan unveiled Monday by the White House would cut the federal Highway Trust Fund by $122 billion over 10 years, drying up the main source of federal aid to the states for road projects and mass transit.

Schumer said such a deep cut would make it more difficult for New York state to compete for federal money to demolish the elevated portion of Interstate 81 and replace it with a new highway, street-level boulevard or tunnel.

Those options range in cost from $1.3 billion to $4.5 billion, according to state studies. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has ordered a study, due early next year, that will recommend one of the options. But it may come too late for significant federal aid, Schumer warned Tuesday.

"With the massive cuts to existing infrastructure programs proposed in the administration's budget, projects like I-81 would be next to impossible to build,' Schumer said.

The federal Highway Trust Fund, paid for primarily by the federal gas tax, spends about $41 billion a year. Trump's proposal would cut the spending by an average of about 25 percent over the course of 10 years, according to an analysis of the budget plan by Schumer's office.

(Excerpt) Read more at syracuse.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: New York
KEYWORDS: construction; funding; i81; infrastructure; newyork; spending; states; syracuse; taxes; transportation; trump; viaduct
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To: IBIAFR

The money gets pissed away on busses, subways, light rail, bike paths, and environmental studies.


21 posted on 02/15/2018 5:40:05 AM PST by tschatski
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To: bagster

The dopes in Albany have banned fracking and thus lost huge revenues. Screw NY.


22 posted on 02/15/2018 6:09:21 AM PST by Cobra64 (Common sense isn't common any more.)
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To: Darksheare; All

NY. Stop funding ILLEGALS in your sanctuary cities and you’ll have some coin for the infrastructure.


23 posted on 02/15/2018 6:10:48 AM PST by Cobra64 (Common sense isn't common any more.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

. New York

> Tax as pct. of gas price: 17.4% (2nd highest)

> State fuel tax: 45.1 cents per gallon (3rd highest)

> Gas price: $2.59 (3rd highest)

New York charges more than 45 cents per gallon in taxes, among the highest tax rates in the country. Yet, although the state’s taxes are extremely high, they are likely needed. As of 2013, more than 60% of bridge area in the state was deficient, the highest rate in the United States. Critics of the state’s tax policy, however, could point to New York’s extremely high state and local tax burden, which was the highest in the country as of fiscal 2011, at 12.6% of per capita income.


24 posted on 02/15/2018 6:15:43 AM PST by McGruff (#ObamaGate)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

I HATE I-81 through Syracuse. It is downright DANGEROUS! Whatever IDIOT designed it should be shot.

With all the exits, lane changes, curves, and traffic the speed limit through the inner city portion should be no higher than 30 mph, of course then it wouldn’t be a real interstate.


25 posted on 02/15/2018 8:21:08 AM PST by faucetman (Ju"st the facts, ma'am, Just the facts)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
I'm all for punishing every "sanctuary" state in the Union by any means necessary: withholding road funding, removing state and local tax exemptions, halting block grants, withholding ANY federal funding until they stop aiding and abetting the invasion of the United States by illegal aliens.

I know there are good people in these states, but there are good people in the countries the US sanctions, too. We need to hurt their leaders and their economies until they come to their senses.

Obama was right about one thing: you punch back twice as hard. Because force is all they'll understand.

26 posted on 02/15/2018 8:22:31 AM PST by backwoods-engineer (The GOP-Democrat-Media Uniparty must be destroyed.)
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To: Gene Eric
Highways aren't funded from the Federal income tax. They're funded by the Federal gas tax, state (and in some states also local) taxes, and by use fees.

As for the other argument, that New Yorkers are entitled to get back more from the Federal government (in general, not from direct service taxation) because they "contribute more" to the Federal income tax, that's also bogus.

People living in high cost of living areas like NY, CA, NOVA, and the Pac Northwest work for multistate and multinational companies who pay higher wages in those areas, depressing the salaries of people who live in other states where they operate. Effectively, people in lower cost of living states subsidize your salary. We also pay more for your products and services when they're offered out of state, again, subsidizing your salary on the supply side.

If you want to play this game, we certainly can in other ways, too. It's time to return control of "Federal" lands in the Western US to the people who live there, so people on the coasts can stop taking away their ability to exploit their resources, lowering their output and raising their aggregate costs.

The point is, where you live is where you live, and economics is not as simple as drawing a box around an arbitrary area and pronouncing "we give more." That's a liberal argument, but liberals have created these skewed demographics and economic islands in the first place.

27 posted on 02/15/2018 10:22:53 AM PST by FredZarguna (And what Rough Beast, its hour come round at last, slouches toward 5th Avenue, to be born?)
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To: backwoods-engineer

All withholdoing the SALT exemption and other prudent exemptions will do is encourage more (hypocritical) liberals to flock to red/purple states, bringing along their naive voting patterns.

Cutting actual funding for their sanctuary cities and states, though, doesn’t bother me one bit.


28 posted on 02/15/2018 2:36:55 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (The US Constitution ....... Invented by geniuses and God .... Administered by morons ......)
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To: McGruff
Critics of the state’s tax policy, however, could point to New York’s extremely high state and local tax burden, which was the highest in the country as of fiscal 2011, at 12.6% of per capita income.

I'm pretty sure that has been eclipsed by Kookiefornia since then.

29 posted on 02/15/2018 2:38:46 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (The US Constitution ....... Invented by geniuses and God .... Administered by morons ......)
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To: FredZarguna

How many farms and factories are subsidized by the Fed? And what about the auto manufacturing exports that are not originating from CA, NY, NJ?

Review the hard data that shows revenue by state, and households per state. CA, TX, NY are top contributors per household with FL a distant 4th. Does the data imply welfare for the lowest contributors? Who knows, who cares, but the actual revenue numbers are documented. Without specifics, all the other arguments about who’s subsidizing who amounts to nothing more than hand-waiving.

I only raise the Revenue Contributions by State argument when responding to the grievance: “my state is subsidizing your state.” Ultimately it’s a pointless debate given the complexity of the inter-state economies — which you mentioned.

I understand the fuel tax is an excise tax apart from income tax.


30 posted on 02/15/2018 4:43:08 PM PST by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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