LI county execs muscle road projects onto state list

Daily Point

Oakdale Merge, Southern State interchange added to transportation funding list

After significant pressure and even threats of a veto from Suffolk County Executive Edward P. Romaine, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council has amended its five-year project list to include two significant Long Island efforts — improvements to the Oakdale Merge and “safety enhancements” to the interchange between the Southern State Parkway and the Meadowbrook Parkway, The Point has learned.

The changes came just days before a vote scheduled for Friday, in which unanimous assent is required to approve the list, known as the Transportation Improvement Program, which serves as a blueprint for future state and federal funding.

Romaine has complained for weeks that the initial list had left out key Long Island projects. Calling it a “declaration of war” on Long Island’s transportation needs, workers and future, Romaine told The Point last month that he’d “exercise a veto, unless or until this council comes to its senses …” 

A week later, NYMTC delayed a vote on the TIP, avoiding a “no” from Long Island’s representatives. A Newsday editorial then called on NYMTC to add Long Island’s must-do projects to the TIP, saying that without that, Romaine and Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman should “torpedo the entire list.” 

It seems NYMTC was listening. While the newly amended TIP doesn’t include all of the region’s asks, both county executives said the current program marked an improvement, and likely would be enough for them to support it.

“The Oakdale Merge was a big victory. But while I’m delighted, I know we’ve just started,” Romaine told The Point, noting that his representative plans to now vote in favor of the TIP. “We need to keep fighting for our fair share.”

Romaine noted that he worked with Blakeman to present a united front on the issue, which helped the mutual battle for more funds for the Island.

“Working together with Ed Romaine, organized labor, and local contractors, we have a program now that is not optimal but is certainly better than the original proposal,” Blakeman said in a statement to The Point. “I anticipate voting yes.”

Long Island Contractors’ Association executive director Marc Herbst told The Point that state Department of Transportation officials had been in touch with him regarding the Island’s needs, along with his broader concerns about how the TIP is developed and the policies and procedures that require changes.

“From my understanding, there has been tremendous movement,” Herbst said. “I credit County Executive Romaine for being diligent and for being a strong negotiator, and for having an excellent relationship with the governor, for any results that come out of this.”

Romaine, meanwhile, gave credit to Gov. Kathy Hochul, who, he said, “went out of her way at the last minute to add this.” He said that given the recent additions, he would send a representative to the NYMTC meeting Friday who will vote in favor of the TIP.

But, he said, his fight isn’t over.

“The process needs to be changed and some of our key projects were still left out,” Romaine said. “I’m appreciative of the governor’s efforts. I don’t want to seem ungrateful, but next year is another year and I’m going to call for major reforms.”

Romaine said he will continue to advocate for Long Island to have its own metropolitan transportation planning organization, which would allow the region to govern its own project list and fight for federal funds separately from New York City and the lower Hudson Valley.

“Right now, I’m going to say thank you for what I have. Part of a pie is better than no pie,” Romaine said. “But we’re just starting. If they think this alone is going to solve the problem, it’s not.”

— Randi F. Marshall randi.marshall@newsday.com

Pencil Point

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Final Point

Bruderman turns off his GOP spigot

Big-time Republican Party donor Matthew Bruderman’s political money pot seems to be depleted.

Bruderman, the chairman of his family’s investment business and ousted Nassau University Medical Center chair, was a reliable deep-pocketed Republican donor until recently, having given roughly $573,000 to GOP candidates and committees since 2021. His wife donated about $160,000.

But this year? Just under $16,000, and not a penny to the man who gave and then took away his NUMC role.

Last year, Bruderman gave $21,000 to Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman’s campaign committee — in a nonelection year. In October 2021, less than a month before Blakeman’s successful election as county executive, Bruderman made two donations of $100,000 each to the county GOP. Bruderman then served on Blakeman’s transition team, and in March 2022 was appointed board chair of NUMC by Blakeman.

From 2021-22, Bruderman gave $294,544.38 to the Nassau County Republican Committee, according to filings with the state Board of Elections. In 2022, Bruderman and his wife gave $100,000 each to the state Republican Party.

Bruderman so far this year has given zilch to Blakeman’s reelection campaign and the Nassau GOP.

Perhaps Bruderman, an investment adviser, isn’t pleased with the return on his investment to local Republicans.

In a surprise late-night move April 24, Blakeman bounced Bruderman from the NUMC role almost two years before the end of his term. That happened hours after Bruderman said his Oyster Bay home was broken into and the only thing taken was a binder of files related to a federal investigation of NUMC’s finances.

Since then, Centre Island police recovered the binder and handed off the investigation to Nassau PD. Just another messy Long Island political divorce, or payback for not being paid back.

— Mark Nolan mark.nolan@newsday.com

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