Published: December 24, 2006 08:16 pm      

PATAKI LEGACY DAY 2: Transportation projects taking flight

When Gov. George Pataki leaves office in one week, a new airport in Niagara Falls will be unfinished and road projects such as widening Niagara Falls Boulevard in Wheatfield and construction on the Lockport Street bridge in Niagara Falls remain undone.

But many other projects have come and gone in the last 12 years.

During Pataki’s term, the tolls on the I-190 have come down, the Buffalo-Niagara International Airport has been reconstructed and is entertaining more visitors than ever — the 5 millionth visitor of 2006 is expected this week — and the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority has begun using hybrid buses.

Levels of transportation funding are largely set by the federal government, however the state government raises its own funds through the gas tax and tolls on the Thruway.

Building a new airport in Niagara Falls has been NFTA Commissioner Henry Sloma’s priority since he was appointed to the board in 1998.

The terminal hasn’t been built yet, but Sloma said now that legislation authorizing a steady funding stream for the airport has been signed, construction could begin as early as next spring.

Sloma hoped Pataki would come in with funding to close the gap between the project’s final cost — about $27.5 million — and the casino revenue, about $14 million, but that didn’t happen.

“In his grand benevolence he agrees to give us our money back,” Sloma said of Pataki, who waited until the eleventh hour to sign legislation to ensure that $1 million in slot-machine revenue from the Seneca Niagara Casino would flow to the airport every year until 2016. Now that the legislation is signed the NFTA is in a better position to finance the terminal.

“I was hopeful he would have come up with the money,” Sloma said. “He’s got a few more days.”

During the expansion of the Buffalo-Niagara International Airport, Pataki came through with funding to demolish a nearby building.

The toll removal happened after leading gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer announced his intentions to tear them down if elected. The move, just before state Legislature elections, was seen by many as a political maneuver.

In 2005, a $2.9 billion transportation bond act, supported by Pataki, was passed. The proceeds were split between upstate projects and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York City.

One way Pataki left his mark on the way road projects are funded is that he allowed some with statewide significance to be funded fully by the state so local governments would be as burdened, according to Timothy F. Trabold, principal transportation analyst with the Greater Buffalo-Niagara Regional Transportation Council.

In Western New York, work on Route 219 in the Southern Tier qualifies for this program. Trabold said the council is working to get other projects this funding, such as the I-290 and the Grand Island bridges.

Local road projects under way include the reconstruction of Lewiston Road in Niagara Falls and the rehabilitation of the bridge on Lockport Street, which is held up because of a dispute with CSX railroad.

Contact Jill Terreri at 282-2311, ext. 2250.