Establishes commission on feasibility of constructing and operating light rail commuter system between counties of Ulster, Sullivan and Orange, and New York city

Section 2. Describes how and who will appoint the thirteen member committee.

Section 3. Provides certain authority to the commission on personnel matters.

Section 4. Permits the commission to assemble public hearings, in addition to granting all the powers of a legislative committee pursuant to the legislative law.

Section 5. Notes that members of the commission shall receive no compensation for their services, but awards their actual and necessary expenses incurred in their performance.

Section 6. Entitles the commission with the power to request and receive, utilize and be provided with such facilities, resources and data from an agency of any political subdivision as it pertains to properly carry out its duties.

Section 7. Requires the commission to submit all generated documentation to the executive and the legislature whenever necessitated, and prior to June 1, 2009.

Justification

New York State's economy is experiencing tremendous hardships. Working families, young adults and the middle class in general are experiencing tremendous increases in living costs. While the real estate, and apartment rentals in New York City are seeing substantial increase in valuation and rental costs continue to skyrocket, upstate communities near New York City are seeing population decline, and low levels of economic development.

A light rail system connecting Ulster, Orange and Sullivan Counties to New York City would be a tremendous boost to those economies, will reduce housing costs in New York City, stop the exodus of young people from upstate communities, will provide affordable housing choices to tens of thousands of New Yorkers, will increase opportunities for first-time home buyers in those rural counties, will create a housing boom in those and surrounding counties, and will create new economies that will lower the cost of living in New York State for millions of our residents.

A light rail system promises tremendous benefits for the regions targeted and a feasibility study on the economic impact of such a system needs to be undertaken.

Overseas, in both Europe and Asia, light rail systems with trains that travel at rapid speeds are being deployed with tremendous success. In Europe, these light rail systems have yielded tremendous benefits that also have environmental benefits for entire communities. From Korea to Turkey and Germany to Portugal, light rail systems have allowed those economies to grow, created new jobs, improved infrastructure, allowed rapid transit between suburban and urban centers, and has helped lower living costs for their populations.

New York and the entire nation shamefully lags the rest of the developed world in utilizing light rail systems. The consequences of this failure are evident in the overcrowding we see in urban centers, the loss of population in rural communities, the high costs of housing and the demise of real estate values respectively, and the heavy reliance on automobiles that increase the polluting of our planet.

In combination all these problems, created by the present outdated, inefficient and unaffordable transportation systems, contribute to the human and capital flight from New York we are witnessing.

A light rail system connecting communities that can be linked to New York City's economic expansion will yield a great opportunity for New Yorkers that range from affordable housing to job creation. New York must begin to actively pursue such models of efficient transportation to transform its economy and infrastructure into a system that will allow productivity and opportunity to thrive.

Under the present system, a relative few numbers of landlords are benefiting from a system of demand and supply that is making them obscenely wealthy at the cost of hardworking families. It is time to rethink how to create affordable housing and the studying of a light rail system's impact on such will help policy makers shape new housing, transportation, and economic policy that will reshape New York State.

Legislative history

S.7279 of 2008: Passed Senate

Fiscal implications

Costs of the study.

Effective date

This act shall take effect immediately and shall remain in effect until June 1, 2009, when upon such date the provisions of this act shall be deemed repealed.