POUGHKEEPSIE – Mayor Robert
Rolison has vetoed the common council’s last ditch effort to keep
the Poughkeepsie City bus system alive for another three months. A majority
of the council voted the extension Tuesday evening but on Wednesday, the
mayor rejected it saying the resolution, “cloaked as another attempt
to extend funding for the buses, is really an attempt to derail the orderly
transfer of the buses themselves to Dutchess County.”
City service will end on June 30 and the county will commence city service
on July 1.
The city’s six buses must be turned over to the county or the city
would have to repay the federal government, the primary source of funding
for those vehicles, some $1.2 million.
Rolison said his veto is sending “a strong message – a message
that we will not continue down the same tried-and-failed paths of the
past, that we recognize the strong support we have received and will need
for some time, from the county, the state and – most importantly
– from within our own community, and that in this battle between
fiscal recklessness and good government we either all win – or we
all lose.”
Three members of the common council, who did not support an extension
of city funding – Michael Young, Matthew McNamara and Lee Klein,
did not attend Tuesday’s session, but on Wednesday said the county
assumption of the bus service is the best alternative.
Young said the county will conduct three-month reviews of the city service
and he has also introduced local legislation to increase the membership
on the transportation advisory committee to include city representation.
Opponents of the county bus takeover say it will be at the expense of
those who need the bus service the most and will lose important transportation
routes.
