NY State Transportation Commissioner Joseph Boardman recently named the members of a state-wide advisory panel he said would help him chart a long-range transportation plan for the state.

When Boardman first mentioned the panel to legislators in February, its mission seemed to be to examine ways of paying for the state’s roadway and mass transit infrastructure. That is now a huge issue, since the MTA and NYSDOT need legislative authorization for new multi-year capital programs, existing revenue sources are tapped out and the MTA is carrying a huge amount of debt. It’s unclear whether Governor Pataki and legislative leaders will be willing to bring the pain of transit price hikes back so soon after the bruising MTA fare battle of 2003.

When the panel was first announced, we wrote that "the commissioner’s remarks may be a sign that the Pataki administration recognizes that new revenue will be needed to keep the MTA and other state transportation capital programs going" (MTR #447).

However, a NYSDOT notice announcing the appointments said panel will be "charged with updating a statewide transportation master plan as well as developing transportation policy for the future."

That sounds like a far less interesting and indeed unenviable task to anyone who has followed the history of the master plans and policy documents in NY State, routinely spun out by agencies and committees on myriad topics and inevitably trumped by short-term political and budget needs, or simply by business as usual. To anyone following transportation in New York, funding for the next round of capital programs is the only issue.

In addition to several former state and up-state transportation and elected officials, labor and AAA representatives, the panel will include James Tripp of Environmental Defense, a Tri-State Campaign board member, Lee Sander of DMJM Harris, a former NYC transportation commissioner and convener of the Empire State Transportation Alliance, Janette Sadik-Kahn of Parsons Brinckerhoff, former associate administrator of the Federal Transit Administration, Mitch Pally of the Long Island Association and Patricia Gilchrest of an Orange County civic organization.v