The Task Force created by the County Executives of Rockland and Westchester is charged with the reponsibility of moving the project forward and keeping the public informed as new developments are presented. As a member of that group, I am proud of the fact that we have been meeting the demands of that mandate. As President/CEO of the Rockland Business Association, I am equally proud of the role we have played in this process.
The RBA was one of the first voices heard calling for a new Tappan Zee Bridge with a one-seat, dual-track commuter rail component. We continue to be the strongest advocate for this outcome.
I, personally, have great concern about the safety aspects of the existing structure. While I know these issues are being addressed by the Thruway Authority, I believe they are only "band aids" and not long term solutions. Despite the fact that a $147 million resurfacing project will be undertaken in the spring, our colleagues in the building trades assure us that it is simply a short-term solution. Men who have worked on projects on the underside of the bridge tell me there are places where you can poke your finger through the steel. And, there is the issue of the anchor worms. According to Robert Hintersteiner, a transportation/forensic engineer, "At the rate the anchor worms are consuming the wood piles under the piers of the bridge, the Tappan Zee will be closed to all traffic from three months to three or more years." The bridge has to be replaced. Once you acknowledge that fact, you need to recognize that just replacing it with a similar structure would be foolhardy. Replacement of the TZ Bridge is giving the communities on the west bank of the Hudson the greatest economic development opportunity of the 21st century.
This is not just a bridge issue or even a corridor issue, it is an issue of survival that can shape the future of Rockland and our neighbors to the north. Rockland has been losing over 2,200 residents, each year for several years, to Orange, Ulster and Sullivan Counties. And, according to the IRS, these folks earn $18,000-$50,000 a year. This is a critical portion of our workforce. Our largest companies tell us that only 30% of their employees live in Rockland; fully 70% commute, many of them from counties north of us. As those counties continue to achieve success with their aggressive economic development efforts, those former Rocklanders will find work in their "new" communities and leave our employers with significant needs. We need to do everything possible to provide for the continuing workforce needed by our existing companies and to accommodate the workforce needs of the companies we can attract through our economic development initiatives. We need to tap into the New York City workforce, if for no other reason than we are not attracting a resident workforce.
The RBA spent several years researching this problem. We found there are four cohorts of population growth in Rockland:
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High net worth individuals who live here and work eleswhere;
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Seniors. We have the fastest growing rate of seniors in the state;
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Immigrants who need training so they can be absorbed into the workforce; and,
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A growing Orthodox and Hasidic community.
Currently, 100,000 NYC residents commute to jobs on Long Island on the Long Island Railroad. I can't tell you that Long Island has better job opportunities than Rockland, but I can tell you if those employees need to get home in the middle of the day because of a family emergency, there's a train going back to Penn Station. There are three such train lines servicing Westchester County. There is no such mode of transportation available to those of us on the west side of the Hudson. It is long overdue that we have at least one such rail line.
There is hardly anyone living in Rockland who hasn't complained about the cost of living here. Whether it's the effect of the Mirant situation, school taxes, property taxes, etc., people ask for relief. That can only come from two sources, a reduction in services, resulting in less taxes, or new tax sources. Does anyone believe we'll see the former? The answer, then, is we need more commercial ratables to offset the ever increasing burden on our residents. Two things necessary to achieve this is a satisfactory transportation infrastructure and ready access to a workforce. A new Tappan Zee Bridge, with a one-seat, dual-track rail line provides for these two critical components.
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