The city-owned buses have not been on the road since June 30
POUGHKEEPSIE – Tonight’s Poughkeepsie Common Council meeting is the last scheduled before a deadline, set by the Federal Transit Administration, for the city to hand over its idle buses to Dutchess County. The bus issue is not on the agenda but it could come up under unfinished business.
The federal government, which paid most of the costs of the vehicles, has given the city two options – either turn them over to the county or pay Washington close to $2 million.
Poughkeepsie doesn’t have that kind of money to throw around. The common council cannot muster the votes sufficient to hand the buses over to Dutchess.
State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, who was asked to conduct an audit of the bus system, said he hopes Poughkeepsie officials can resolve the issue so that residents do not get hurt in the end.
“You have a conflict of different needs and different interests there,” DiNapoli said. “Bus service is very important to many people who don’t have alternatives. I know it has been a hot local issue, but I certainly hope that the sides will come together and not be penalized. That would be the worst outcome.”
Mayor Robert Rolison called the council’s failure to transfer the buses “mindboggling.” The only way the same resolution defeated on November 7 could be reconsidered would be for one the two who voted ‘no’ at that meeting – Randall Johnson or Ann Perry – to reintroduce it.
