NewsRegion/State
Cuomo: State should pay to wire gas stations for generators
Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks to Newsday's editorial board. (Feb. 14, 2013) Credit: Sam Guzik
By JOAN GRALLAjoan.gralla@newsday.com February 20, 2013
To prevent storm-caused power outages from shutting gas stations, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo Wednesday proposed that the state pay up to $10,000 to cover the cost of prewiring them for backup generators that the stations must contract to obtain in emergencies.
"They will have to make arrangements to have a generator delivered within 24 hours and they will have to do that at their expense" as a cost of doing business, the Democratic governor said at an Albany news conference.
The measure is included in the 30-day budget amendments Cuomo will formally submit to the legislature Thursday.
Superstorm Sandy cut off fuel deliveries only for a day and a half, the governor said, but motorists were inconvenienced for weeks because many gas stations could not resume pumping until their power was restored.
Only about 2,000 gas stations located within half a mile of a highway exit or a hurricane evacuation route initially would have to meet this requirement, said Howard Glaser, director of state operations. Most of those stations are downstate.
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New York would use federal storm aid to pay for all but "several million dollars" of the pre-wiring costs, Cuomo said.
If enacted by the Legislature, the gas station measure would be the "most robust law in the country," Cuomo said.
Other amendments that Cuomo previewed include:
Reducing the fee for a hunting license to $22 from $29, and a fishing license to $25 from $29. Fishing licenses would be valid for one year, instead of just a season.
Giving New York City and Mayor Michael Bloomberg until May 1 to negotiate a teacher evaluation system. If they fail to do so, the state education commissioner can impose such a system -- which could run for several years -- by the end of May. The new teacher evaluation system must be in place by Sept. 1 to prevent the city from losing $250 million of aid.
Cutting funding for the developmentally disabled by $120 million and obliging the state to find $380 million of savings from the Medicaid program, perhaps by getting health care providers to enroll patients more quickly in managed care, for example. The total of $500 million in Medicaid reductions is needed because the state and federal government negotiated lower reimbursement rates to settle a 20-year dispute over how much the state was repaid for its care of the most severely developmentally disabled who were institutionalized.