POUGHKEEPSIE – Mayor Robert Rolison vetoed the common council’s last ditch effort to keep the Poughkeepsie City bus system alive for another three months. A bare majority of five council members 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.
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. On Wednesday, they 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 benefit the city’s service. He has proposed to increase the membership on the transportation advisory committee to include city representation to offer the best route service for residents.
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.”
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.
