Merger is a road filled with pitfalls

The point of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s concept of shared services for the agencies and departments doing the sharing is to cut costs and yield savings, and then pass that savings on to taxpayers.

Mergers, consolidation — whichever word you wish to use — was supposed to be all about reducing the high cost of living and working in the Empire State.

But abolishing the state Bridge Authority and merging it with the state Thruway Authority is a road filled with pitfalls.

At a state budget forum at Columbia-Greene Community College on Wednesday, Children’s author Hudson Talbott, of Catskill, brought up the Hudson River Skywalk, a new walkway connecting the Thomas Cole’s Cedar Grove with Frederic Church’s Olana, and how attendance at the Cole House has more than doubled.

But it’s about more than numbers, Talbott said. It’s about creating an identity for the area.

“We have become the Hudson River School region, and that all started with the Bridge Authority,” Talbott said. “They are important neighbors and citizens of our region, and I am very concerned about the loss of that. The Bridge Authority isn’t technically economic development, but it virtually is for us. There might be a cost saving if you conflate the two, but we are probably going to lose, in other ways, generating income for our region.”

Thruway Authority Executive Director Matthew J. Driscoll disagreed with Talbott’s assertion Feb. 13, when he said: “There will be no disruption to the operations of the Bridge Authority, and tolls will continue to be kept among the lowest in the nation, serving the authority’s operational and capital needs and keeping its long-term capital plan intact.”

A merger is detrimental to the thousands of motorists who cross the Rip Van Winkle Bridge each year, said Twin County representatives on both sides of the aisle at the college Wednesday.

“This reeks of the governor’s textbook gamesmanship,” Assemblyman Chris Tague, R-102, said. “The Bridge Authority is one of the most efficient agencies in the state, so naturally, Cuomo is targeting it as a potential revenue source. He’s got a massive budget hole and budget season is right around the corner. I say, let the authority remain on its own as a functional and necessary part of the river’s economy. It’s already successful.”

State Sen. Daphne Jordan, R-43, has serious concerns about the proposal, citing the state’s poor track record maintaining critical infrastructure.

“Gov. Cuomo’s proposed merger of the New York State Bridge Authority and the New York State Thruway Authority is a bridge to increased tolls and decreased bridge maintenance,” Jordan said.

Assemblywoman Didi Barrett, D-106, is one of five assembly members to draft, sign and send a letter to Cuomo, dated Feb. 5, opposing the merger.

“I join with my fellow Hudson Valley colleagues to oppose this proposal and to urge the governor to remove it as part of his 30-day amendments and keep the highly efficient and effective Bridge Authority independent as it was originally intended,” Barrett said.

Motorists near and far who frequently travel the Rip Van Winkle Bridge think of it as a local road that connects more than Greene and Columbia counties. The bridge is part of daily life in the Twin Counties, and it should remain affordable. It’s ironic that merging the two authorities could mean increased tolls for drivers and harm a local economy that appears to be turning the corner even as the Thruway Authority plans future toll increases.

As the old saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.