Long Island secession from regional transportation board proposed 

Republican and Democratic lawmakers want Long Island to secede from a planning organization that shares federal transportation funding with other New York counties, including the five boroughs, arguing that it would help Nassau and Suffolk get more money.

Bipartisan legislation in Albany seeks the creation of a separate metropolitan transportation organization that would allow Long Island to directly apply for funding from the federal government for roadway and transit infrastructure projects in Nassau and Suffolk.

Currently, Nassau and Suffolk are part of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council, which includes New York City and the Lower Hudson Valley. The council’s nine-member board, which includes the county executives of Nassau and Suffolk, collectively chooses which projects to submit for federal funding.

The council's executive director disputed that Long Island is not adequately represented, and said Nassau and Suffolk benefit from working with other parts of the region, including New York City.

Marc Herbst, executive director of the Long Island Contractors' Association — a construction trades group that supports breaking away — noted that, at 3 million people, Long Island’s population rivals that of most major American cities. Competing with transportation projects in New York City, he said Nassau and Suffolk projects often aren’t given the priority they deserve. Herbst said that, although New York got more than $5 billion out of the $1.2 trillion federal infrastructure bill passed in 2021, less than 1% of that has come to Long Island.

"The problem is we get forgotten on Long Island, our important needs," Herbst said Wednesday at a Dix Hills news conference. "I’m not asking for or calling for a divorce ... We’ve been living in the basement far too long as kids and it’s time for us to move out."

New York Metropolitan Transportation Council executive director Adam Levine disagreed that Long Island would be better served going out on its own. He noted many of the people who would decide what projects to advance in a Long Island-exclusive planning organization already have decision-making power on NYMTC, including the county executives and leaders of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Levine noted several major projects benefiting Long Island have been advanced through the council in recent years, including the Long Island Rail Road’s Third Track in Nassau, and the construction of Grand Central Madison. He said Nassau and Suffolk currently have 400 projects on NYMTC’s to-do list — more than New York City has.

"It’s in our mission statement to make sure that Long Island gets every federal dollar they possibly can," Levine, who attended Wednesday’s news conference, said. "That regional planning of Long Island, New York City and the Hudson Valley working together helps improve everybody. It lifts all boats."

Herbst said much smaller regions of the state — including, Ithaca, with a population of about 107,000 — have their own metropolitan transportation organization, or MPOs, allowing them to directly apply for federal funding.

Bills authored by Democratic lawmakers and cosponsored by Republicans that would form a Long Island MPO were introduced in Albany over the summer. John Lindsay, spokesperson for Gov. Kathy Hochul, said in a statement that Hochul "will review any legislation that passes both houses of the legislature."

With increased federal funding, bill supporters said they could advance several important transportation projects on Long Island, including redesigning the interchange connecting the Meadowbrook Parkway and the Southern State Parkway, and electrifying the LIRR’s Port Jefferson branch.

"This is a fight about the future of Long Island," Suffolk County Executive Edward P. Romaine said. "We are gong to demand, for the first time in a long time, our fair share."

By Alfonso A. Castillo

alfonso.castillo@newsday.com@alfonsoreports

Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.