According to a poll of 2,821 Newsday.com readers, 65.2% of Long Islanders would pay higher taxes or pay a high toll to finance a tunnel from Oyster Bay to Rye. Unless you'd like Garden City Long Island developer Vince Polimeri to drive a truck under your front lawn, we suggest you vote–early and often.
We are asking MyRye.com readers to vote on the Newsday poll and then scroll down and vote in our very own MyRye.com tunnel poll. Rye Mayor Steve Otis has been a vocal opponent of the proposed tunnel.
Developer Polimeri has proposed building a $10 billion dollar vehicle tunnel under the Long Island Sound connecting Syosset on Long Island and Rye in Westchester. The privately financed toll road would carry up to 80,000 vehicles daily, primarily trucks paying a toll of $100 one-way. Cars would pay $25 one-way.
Vote:
1. Vote in the Newsday poll here
2. Vote in the MyRye.com poll by scrolling down
First – with the financial markets in the condition they’re in there is literally no money in the entire world for a speculative LT construction project like this currently.
Second – when the money is again available then the political risk of investing in a state like New York is going to weigh heavily on investment decision makers. Right now we are very close to issuing California style IOU’s to state vendors and with high income job creators leaving the state in significant numbers, the lasting effects of Albany’s mismanagement of the public till will be here for years to come. No matter what gang of glad handing politicians are ultimately there to greet the developers, the institutional memory of “3 men in a room” and “tax more and spend much more” will undercut the efforts to place the project’s massive debt.
Third – if Rye were not considered an environmental law joke punch line it would surely help us in defending our collective properties. Take the very real case of our local wetland and watercourse laws. There they sit on paper as voted into effect by the citizens. And there sits the current city council selectively deciding which citizens get protection under them and which do not. Any tunnel construction advocacy law firm would point out to state and federal authorities the duplicity of a municipal pattern of selective enforcement of these laws as a reason to give Rye’s expressed concerns about the site impact of a future tunnel no mind.
Fourth – let’s not forget how big the population of Long Island is and how that translates into clout – political and otherwise. There are more of them than us in Westchester and the idea of a user funded lower/mid island conduit to the mainland contiguous to the Connecticut boarder is attractive and aligning to many island constituencies. Don’t count on local Westchester politicians to be able to overcome this sizable block. Just look at what they’re doing about cutting taxes (as we asked them to do) as your guide to their voter loyalty and legislative efficacy.
Put the thing right through Hen Island
Voice<<< you sound like your truly reasonable