“This budget is exceptionally disappointing,” Brookhaven Highway Superintendent Dan Losquadro told The South Shore Press this week.
In an interview that spanned Gov. Hochul’s disregard for local road funding and the countrywide rock salt shortage, the former State Assemblyman and current vice president (former president) of the Suffolk County Highway Superintendents’ Association did not hold back.
“Maybe I know a little bit more about the state budget than the average bear… but people need to understand,” Losquadro prefaced. “The Governor went out of her way to talk about the rampant inflation we face,” yet rewarded the New York Department of Transportation (DOT) with an additional $800 million to offset close to a 40% increase in costs since the pandemic.
Meanwhile, the proposal provides exactly $0 for local roads. According to Losquadro, local highway departments maintain 87% of these roads statewide. “It’s more than a shame,” he continued.
Losquadro and his fellow Executive Board members within the New York State Association of Local Highway Superintendents consider it “incredibly unfair and hypocritical” for the Governor to acknowledge the scope of the problem on one hand, and deliberately ignore it on the other.
New York State collects approximately $6 billion from 11 million drivers, Losquadro laments.
“This is no longer just a case of doing more with less,” he said. “The rate of inflation outstripped that mantra years ago. From where we were 4-5 years ago, we’re maybe getting 60, 65 cents on the dollar from what we were spending then…”
Now, local highway leaders like Losquadro find themselves in the unenviable position of having to speak to the State Legislature to find a way to finagle these funds from slippery hands that have proven to feed them zilch thus far.
Physical repairs are not the only form of roadway reform due to be in order. Those dialed into The South Shore Press’ newsroom, and local news in general, these past several months are intimately aware of the epidemic of speedsters wreaking absolute havoc across the Island’s streets.
Poll any of your local representatives and you will know Albany has a knack for “hearing” downstate concerns without properly rectifying them in a timely manner, if at all. “The problem is that the Legislature is controlled by New York City,” says Losquadro.
Even though "the majority of the roads in the state fall outside of New York City limits, we are going to have to rely on representatives from across from the state to try and help us offset the costs,” he adds.
“That’s really the crux of this problem… we have to pay for the materials, we have to pay the contractors and the labor… the insurance for the contractors… the cost of business has gone up, and raw materials have increased tremendously.”
Beyond these frustrations, Losquadro cites no operational issues with regard to rock salt replenishment. He ensures Brookhaven’s salt farms are filled before the season starts, thereby insulating them against supply chain disruptions.
His concerns, vis-a-vi Hochul’s state budget proposal, lie in the “significantly increased” price of rock salt—which has been exacerbated by the NYDOT lowering the weight limit on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.
"There’s a section they call the ‘Triple Cantilever Section’ that’s by the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and they cut the weight restriction in half in that area,” said Losquadro, who revealed that Brookhaven’s rock salt comes from Atlantic Salt out of Staten Island.
Due to the weight restrictions, shorter load runs have been commissioned, which has increased the shipping costs and brought the cost per ton upwards of $100.
Losquadro vows to affordably bring material into Long Island not just for himself, but also for his fellow highway department-heading and public works colleagues far and wide. He says they have “looked at rail(ways),” and notes the lone issue here is having sufficient capacity.
“When you bring these huge barges of material in, it needs to be unloaded somewhere, and then shipped out; so that is difficult,” he said.
“Finding an alternate means of distribution is something that we are currently looking at. Hopefully, we can bring costs down.”