Construction costs throughout New York are falling, according to a data analysis by the New York Building Congress. Materials and labor costs for office buildings are down 10 percent since last year, with costs for apartment buildings down 9 percent, and costs for government buildings (schools and libraries) down 8 percent.
Anecdotal evidence shows even steeper drop-offs. “A number of top officials at major New York City agencies [say] that contractor bids have been coming in well below project estimates,” with one executive saying costs are down “15 percent overall and 20 percent in the residential sector.”
All the more reason for New York City and state to get their fiscal houses in order when it comes to spiraling social-service costs for things like Medicaid and education, so that they can take advantage of lower prices amidst a construction slump to fix up our deteriorating infrastructure.
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Thruway toll credit crashes
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Cuomo’s magical mystery cash
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Power for tolls?
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Gone with the windfall
Governor Andrew Cuomo’s plan for allocating $5.4 billion in windfall funds has survived, almost intact, in the agreed-upon New York State budget for the 2016 fiscal year, which starts April 1.
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A tangled broadband proposal
As part of his plan for allocating $5.4 billion in one-shot windfall funds, Governor Cuomo wants to spend $500 million to expand the availability and capacity of broadband Internet access across New York. But given pressing traditional infrastructure needs, should broadband rate a high priority? Do we really need it? The governor's case, on closer inspection, is less than compelling. Read More
Cuomo’s fungible windfall
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There goes the windfall?
One of the biggest questions heading into New York’s fiscal 2016 Executive Budget presentation was how Governor Andrew Cuomo would choose to allocate an unprecedented, one-shot $5.4 billion windfall "surplus" originating with fines and penalties collected from financial institutions.
Now we have the answer: under Cuomo's proposal, less than one-third of the money—barely $1.6 billion—would be absolutely, positively committed to core transportation infrastructure purposes.
The rest would go to an assortment of stuff, only some of which would fit into even an extra-broad definition of “infrastructure.” Read More