MONTICELLO — Rep. Maurice Hinchey says a state time frame that would see a decade or more pass before Route 17 actually becomes Interstate 86 is unacceptable and he wants area residents to see that their state legislators get the message.

Hinchey said the effort to make the highway part of the federal system was initiated in Congress and state officials have been "dragged along kicking and screaming," from the beginning. Now-needed-design changes and repairs that would allow the designation in five to six years have been given a low priority in Albany, while state officials sit on billions of federal highway dollars, Hinchey said.

Hinchey (D-26) called a meeting at the Sullivan County Government Center on Monday to implore county residents to write and lobby their representatives in Albany to include $30 million in planning and engineering money in this year’s state budget for upgrading the highway to interstate standards. He said it was a matter of economic common sense and funding necessity.

The congressman provided numbers to back his claims. The state has estimated a $550 million total cost for various upgrades and design changes along the 204-mile section of Route 17 between Broome County and Harriman— western portions of the highway already are designated as interstate highway. The state is estimating eight to 12 years for the work.

But Hinchey said the delay is unnecessary as well as impractical. Aside from economic losses, New York stands to lose additional federal grant funding if plans for the upgrade are not done in three years. Quoting a recent consultant’s study Hinchey said that the new highway would have a $3.2 billion impact over 20 years, if competed in eight years. Additionally, the State of New York stands to gain approximately $82 million through increased sales tax revenue. By delaying the designation, the study found that $711 million in economic development growth would be forfeited and the state would stand to lose $18.6 million in additional sales tax revenues.

The state’s timeliness could also impact available funding, he said. Work on I-86 must be included in the state Department of Transportation’s five-year plan, if funding schedules are to be met. New federal transportation grants under so-called "TEA-21" legislation will provide $8.2 billion in federal money in the next three years, but if plans are not prepared within that time, federal dollars will go back to Washington, he warned.

A failure to budget this work when the federal government is funding all but a fraction of the cost is "poor management, poor government," he said. New York "has to get off its duff to get the design work done," Hinchey said.

Funding $550 million may sound like massive amounts, but the figure is only some seven percent of the federal money New York will be receiving, Hinchey said. "Clearly, the money is there to do it," he said.

Hinchey, a Democrat, said "the state is not on the ball on this" and intimated that transportation decisions were being made "largely" by Republican leaders in Albany, but he said, "they can be changed. [Route 17] can be given a higher priority."

The new interstate would parallel I-90, the east/west Thruway, whose tolls could suffer from new competition, but Hinchey said he saw no conflict in that for state officials. "It would take growing traffic pressure off (north/south Thruway) I-87and provide better traffic safety," he said.

Still, the designation has its critics. Ken Saltzman, owner of the Memories, an antique and furniture store in Parksville, said he would lose his unique position of being a direct pull-off from Route 17. He had other concerns. "If you were talking rail service, I would said ‘this guy’s a messiah.’" Saltzman said.

Hinchey was adamant. "I think the argument for I-86 is irrefutable. The state delegation has to make it the number-one priority for the southern tier, because it is. Nothing anyone else could do even rises close to the level of this project. We need to promote it," he said.

Hinchey said lobbying, letters and calls to local state legislators and the leaders in the Assembly and Senate were needed to get the budget changes before the legal, if not likely state budget preparation deadline of April 1.

The joint Government Affairs Committee of the Partnership for Economic Development and Sullivan County Chamber of Commerce, under the leadership of Anna Niemann of Cooper and Niemann, CPA’s, are sponsoring the annual lobbying bus trip for Small Business Day in Albany on March 28. Contact Niemann at 914/796-1800, Michael J. Sullivan at 794-1110 or Jacquie Leventoff at 794-2211 for ticket information.