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Contractors to Paterson: Keep Projects Going

NEW YORK CITY-Unless there's emergency action to fund state construction projects until a new budget is passed, contractors say they face more layoffs.

By Paul Bubny | Updated on April 01, 2010

NEW YORK CITY-Billions of dollars in road and bridge construction projects are on hold statewide following Gov. David Paterson’s order to freeze funding on the projects until the latest budget impasse in Albany is resolved. Locally, more than $2 billion worth of projects are affected by the order, which took effect Thursday. At risk, New York construction groups say, is the long-term health of an industry already reeling from 27% unemployment nationwide, and they want Paterson to take action to keep the projects going.

“If the state had said it was freezing payments to all vendors across all industries, we would have accepted that,” Denise Richardson, managing director of the General Contractors Association of New York, tells GlobeSt.com. “What bothers us is that we were the industry that was singled out for this.”

Paterson’s order does not say that contractors must stop work on the state-funded projects, only that they cannot expect to be paid until after the budget is finalized. The order, issued in accordance with emergency legislation to keep the state government going temporarily, does not affect progress on projects funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Nor does it halt payment for capital project expenses “incurred to address emergency health and safety needs,” according to a statement from Stanley Gee, acting state commissioner of transportation.

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