Content area
Full Text
Washington - After winning an empty congressional seat, Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-Far Rockaway) found himself practically powerless this year when the House was drafting a massive bill that would fund local transportation projects into the next millennium.
"There were only a handful of members that when the first draft came out, they didn't get anything," said Sean Peterson, Meeks' administrative assistant. "He was in that group . . . I think a lot of decisions were made when there was no representation for the district."
Not only was Meeks new, he was a Democrat in a Republican-led House. He turned to Sens. Alfonse D'Amato (R-N.Y.) and Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.), and with their influence, his district got $4 million to fix drainage problems at Springfield Boulevard in Jamaica.
All New York's wheeling and dealing garnered the Empire State the third-largest share of funding in the six-year, $216-billion measure, at least $8 billion for roads and $6.7 billion for transit projects. That's up from a total of $10.3 billion in the last six years.
The state had geared up for the transportation battle long ago, knowing that many states were going to complain that New York was getting more than its share in gas-tax funding, which funds the transportation bill. New York officials expected to lose as much as $1 billion because the population had shifted from the Northeast to the South and West.
"We've been hustling for the last two years," said John Daly, Gov. George Pataki's adviser on the bill and the state's former transportation commissioner.
As an example of how small increases mean large results, the New York delegation, not known for its togetherness, deluged...