Press release from Assemblyman Steve Hawley:
As the Sept. 30 deadline for the removal of New York state’s illegal "I Love New York" signs approaches, Assemblyman Steve Hawley (R,C,I-Batavia) has called on Gov. Cuomo to obey federal requirements and follow through with eliminating the dangerous distraction before it is too late.
A failure to do so could result in New York’s loss of $14 million in federal highway funding at a steep cost to the state’s already overburdened taxpayers.
Federal highway officials have been pushing for the removal of the "I Love New York" signs for over a year, citing the location and amount of text on the signs as a distracting hazard to drivers.
Despite objections from Washington, more than 500 of these oversized signs were installed in 2017 at an $8.1 million cost to New York’s taxpayers. Now the campaign, meant to drive tourism across the Empire State, could result in an even greater cost to New York’s residents.
Hawley has been actively pushing for the signs’ timely removal in the interest of not only New York’s finances, but the safety of the state’s drivers.
“It is no secret that our governor is at odds with the federal government, and it is shameful for him to endanger our state’s drivers and allow this invaluable funding to hang in the balance due to this personal feud,” Hawley said.
“I call on Governor Cuomo to do what’s right for the people of New York and remove these ill-advised and distracting road signs before our taxpayers are left to quite literally pay the consequences.”
This is just another glaring
This is just another glaring example of what's wrong with government - and, among other things, the misuse of citizen's money.
New York spent roughly $15,000 EACH for the 514 signs. That amounts to over SEVEN MILLION DOLLARS. Now, I don't know if (NY) was aware that the signs were "illegal" before they were actually produced. But, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, state officials knew the signage violated federal law prior to their installation. So, instead of NY state officials doing their "due diligence"/research, to ensure that such signage was allowed under Department of Transportation laws, they, apparently, just went ahead and wasted @7-million dollars. On top of that misuse of taxpayer funds, after being told that the installation of them was illegal, NY went ahead and did it anyways. That cost NY'ers another half-million dollars.
Lord only knows how much money has been spent on "legal fees", by both the federal government (USDOT), and, New York State (NYDOT), for this incident. All of which is taxpayer's money, mind you.
Does "NY gov't" care? IMO, not in the least. Gov't wastes our money like "it grows on trees". They never run out of money, because, they can always "add a little here, add a little there", to our taxes.
Instead of "Emporor Andrew" swallowing his pride, and, admitting he made a mistake - albeit an $8,000,000+ mistake - he chooses to spend MORE on it. SHAMEFUL!!!
"Government" is always telling us, "You don't get to break the law simply because you disagree with it. Use the proper channels to have the law changed".
This is just one more example of "gov't" basically saying, "We don't have to follow the law, but, citizens do".
It's disgusting!
Well said Ed......make a
Well said Ed......make a change in November is all i can say