GENCO: ‘Authority’ never wins for Western New York

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January 20, 2008

Anonymous The Journal-Register Sun Jan 20, 2008, 12:46 AM EST

Can someone please explain to me how an “authority” ever benefits Western New York?

Long-time readers know of my disdain for the louts at the New York Power Authority.

After all, it takes a special kind of uncaring to sap $1 million per day from a downtrodden regional economy while ensuring its citizens still pay among the highest electric rates in the nation, as the Niagara Power Project does.

I still say the easiest way remedy the situation is to take a big swing of the bat and point out the stakeholders on hand never capitulated to the meager offerings of NYPA during the relicensing because they were not getting a fair shake.

North Tonawanda, Tonawanda, Town of Tonawanda, Grand Island and Buffalo all suffer the negative effects of NYPA leadership without receiving a significant benefit.

The most logical thing would be to band together and use eminent domain to take over, once and for all. The trouble is the powers that be — for example, the Buffalo Niagara Partnership, which should be a regional leader in such matters — are dining at the trough of big government. When an entity like NYPA feels challenged, the first thing that happens is it begins to gather its marbles and go home.

As an example, consider the largess the authority showed in helping out things like Artpark in Lewiston or that fine village’s jazz festival. When an audit last year showed such awards were largely arbitrary, they were ended, not because anything was wrong but because someone dared to challenge.

The Partnership would face the same ugly consequence if it were to stand up for the taxpayers and businesses of Western New York rather than defending the status quo and kowtowing to Albany.

Meanwhile, we have the Thruway Authority. The geniuses there arbitrarily raised the toll on the Grand Island Bridges from 75 cents to $1 recently, with no warning.

Never mind the illogic of a lack of similar charges on other bridges, or the disregard for the fact it costs far less than $1 per car to operate and maintain the bridges. After all, it’s about profit and patronage, not safety or service.

This is the same organization that agreed to take over the State Barge Canal, which will always be a costly burden because of the number of miles of nothing and the fact it can’t generate enough revenue to pay its way.

The canal is an historic monument. I love the new docks in the Tonawandas, but there is a lot of nothingness all along the way and the Thruway Authority should not be in charge of it because it obscures the bottom line — we should understand the cost of the canal, grin and bear it, not see it buried among the roads and bridges of a separate bureaucracy and supported by highway tolls.

From there, we come to the Peace Bridge Authority. How long ago was it they started talking about building a new bridge? Why has nothing ever happened? How does this benefit our region?

Imagine competent leadership and creative solutions. Imagine a new bridge a year away from opening. Imagine the Canadian dollar being worth more than the U.S. dollar and a bright, new easier to cross bridge in place just in time for our neighbors from the north to head across the border to shop and perhaps even live, taking advantage of reasonably priced real estate.

Oh darn. The dollar thing happened but no one built a new bridge.

Meanwhile, the Erie County Water Authority seems to glide blindly along. I know it’s a coincidence, but I have trouble bringing quickly to mind what they’ve messed up lately. Heck, I have to go all the way back to the October Storm in 2005 when our water system almost went dry because they never purchased generators to run pumps if bad things ever happened.

It seems like we should have heard by now about the installation of those generators if they were interested in learning from the past.

Unfortunately, that’s not how big government, or authorities, work.

Thanks for reading.

LM Boyd of the Week: "Second" is of French origin. The English borrowed it. They used to say first, other, third, fourth and so on.

Word of the Week: "Pell-Mell" rushing to and fro at a frenzied pace. Based on an old French game in which participants tried to strike a ball through a hoop at the end of an alley.

Contact Joe Genco at jgenco@localnet.com.

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