Skip to Content
Streetsblog New York City home
Streetsblog New York City home
Log In
Andrew Cuomo

State Panel OKs $255 Million Clean Water Raid for Tappan Zee Bridge

5:56 PM EDT on July 16, 2014

This afternoon, the Public Authorities Control Board signed off on a loan from the state's clean water fund to help finance the new Tappan Zee Bridge. The board approved half of the $511 million loan that Governor Andrew Cuomo is seeking, but the administration called it "the first installment" of the loan, creating the expectation of more clean water money to finance the extra-wide highway bridge. The approval, likely to be further challenged by advocates, could set a dangerous precedent for other governors looking to raid clean water funds for highway construction.

Why is this man smiling? He just took a big chunk of change for his new bridge from a clean water fund. Photo: Azi Paybarah/Flickr
Why is this man smiling? He just got money for his new bridge from a clean water fund. Photo: Azi Paybarah/Flickr
Why is this man smiling? He just took a big chunk of change for his new bridge from a clean water fund. Photo: Azi Paybarah/Flickr

The board's three voting members -- Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, State Senator John DeFrancisco, and Governor Andrew Cuomo's budget director, Robert Megna -- each could have vetoed the loan. Silver and DeFrancisco said today they voted for the smaller loan to limit the negative impact on the state's clean water revolving fund.

“This will do nothing to impair the ability to make loans,” DeFrancisco said of the $255 million loan, which will fund, among other things, environmentally-harmful dredging, according to Bloomberg. “These things have to be done. Why not out of an environmental fund?”

Environmental advocates disagreed. "It is simply not true to say that the $255 million loan is ‘environmental' funding, when the vast majority of that sum is for bridge construction and related work," said New York League of Conservation Voters President Marcia Bystryn. "Clean-water loans are meant for clean-water projects -- not for a bridge -- and today's vote could set a dangerous precedent that will inspire states around the country to start diverting clean-water dollars."

"A raid is a raid, and a quarter billion dollars in public money should not be bandied about behind closed doors without proper public scrutiny," said Environmental Advocates of New York Executive Director Peter Iwanowicz. "Using clean water funds to build a bridge is not creative leadership, it is behaving like a kid in a candy store."

The state played down its use of a federally subsidized clean water loan on a highway project by insisting it would pay off the debt. "This loan will be repaid and then recycled to benefit other clean-water projects across the state," said Environmental Facilities Corporation president and CEO Matthew J. Driscoll. The EFC's board of Cuomo appointees approved the loan last month. Driscoll added that he hopes the bridge project can secure the other half of the loan in 2016.

"The Thruway Authority is committed to an unprecedented level of environmental stewardship," said Thruway Authority executive director Thomas J. Madison, "and also to keeping tolls on the new spans as low as possible."

The financing plan for the Tappan Zee remains a mystery to the public, and many opposed to the loan hoped the control board would use its power to wrest some more information from the Cuomo administration about how the state is going to pay for the bridge. That didn't happen today. "We are no closer to knowing the Governor’s math for this loan or this bridge than we were a month ago," Iwanowicz said.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog New York City

Maximum Rage: Delivery Workers Protest Low Wages, App ‘Lockouts’

Couriers with bikes and signs urge the city to step in as Uber Eats, GrubHub and DoorDash withhold work, they say.

March 28, 2024

The Toll of History: MTA Board Approves $15 Congestion Pricing Fee

New York City's congestion pricing tolls are one historic step closer to reality after Wednesday's 11-1 MTA board vote. Next step: all those pesky lawsuits.

March 28, 2024

Company That Fought McGuinness Safety Project Wants to Seize Bklyn Street for Private Backlot

Broadway Stages to Greenpoint residents: "Street safety for me, not for thee."

March 28, 2024

SEE IT: Hit-and-Run Driver With Fake Plate Seriously Injures Cyclist

The 5 p.m. crash occurred at Flushing and Waverly avenue near the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

March 28, 2024

Thursday’s Headlines: Shakira Shakira Edition

Pop superstar Shakira performed for a crowd of 40,000 packed into the Times Square pedestrian plazas. Plus congestion pricing news and more.

March 28, 2024
See all posts