Cou foe's tile bile
Upstate pol in bid to brake Andy tunnel-vanity $pree
Gov. Cuomo had better think twice the next time he wants to do pricey tunnel makeovers — if Congress passes a new bill proposed in response to his recent colortile spending spree.
Upstate Congressman John Faso (R-Kingston) has given his legislation the acronym RETILE (the Removing Extra Transportation Infrastructure Luxury Expenses Act) — to make it clear the bill seeks to prevent a repeat of Cuomo’s decision to spend as much as $30 million extra to install fancy blue and gold tiles inside the QueensMidtown and Brooklyn-Battery Tunnels.
“I’m a strong supporter of spending money on infrastructure, but I’m not a supporter of wasting tax dollars, and that’s what this was,” Faso said. The legislation would require states to get a waiver from the federal government if they want to use expensive colored tiles in tunnels when using FEMA money for disaster repairs. The bill is so narrowly worded in its targeting of tunnel projects that it’s clearly meant to rankle Cuomo. Faso acknowledged he did that to make a point. “When my colleagues from other states — who are often anxious to reduce expenditures for New York — learn about things like this, they react negatively,” he said. Documents found by The Post last month show that the colored tiles cost $7.3 million, and a construction-industry source familiar with the projects said they drove up costs by millions because they are thicker than regular white ones. Sources told The Post the colored tiles cost $20 million to $30 million more to buy and install, although Cuomo’s office disputes that.
Plans originally called for all the tiles to be white, and the extra money for the colored tiles came from contract modifications totaling $62.6 million that the MTA board approved in November 2016, minutes of the meeting show.
Cuomo’s office called the bill a blatant political move.
“Faso always puts partisan politics over representing New Yorkers as his vote to raise taxes on his own constituents shows,” said Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi.
“As far as color of tiles, he should walk into his bathroom and look around to see that they use different colors and if he ever looked around in the old and new tunnel he would have noticed they both used two colors.”