February 7, 2008 - Senator Flanagan Calls For A Complete List Of Long Island Parks Projects

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LEGISLATIVE OFFICE BUILDING

SENATOR IOHN I. FLANAGAN

Room

2nd DISTRICT

817

Albany New york

Chair Ccrporaticns, Authorities

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THE SENATE

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l5t8t 455-2A71 Fax (tlE) 426-6904

STATE OF NEW YORI(

DISTRICT

Commlttees

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February 7,2008

Transportation Veierans. Homeland Secutity 6 N'ljlitary Affairs

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Senatorllana€an com flana€an@senate state.ny us

Carol Ash Office of the Cornmissioner NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Empire State Plaza, Agency Building #l Albany, New York 12238 Dear Commissioner Ash:

Thank you for your letter of January 23,2008. While I appreciate your brief cover letter

and press release, as well as pages from the proposed parks capital budget, this is an insufficient and incomplete response to the specific questions and infonnation requested in my January I l th

and I 8th correspondence to you.

As you can see from the January I lth letter, I specifically asked for ,,an itemized list of all proiects identiJied for the Long Island Region along with the estimuted costs for each proiect," not just those capital construction and design projects that will be advanced by your department in FY 2008-09. As you recall from your confirmation hearing, you mentioned more than $300 million (which was then subsequently adjusted upward by you to $600 million) in capital construction projects that remain outstanding throughout the State. Given this figure, I assulne that the Long Island Region has significantly more construction and design projects that have been identified beyond 2008-09. Therefore, I again respectfully ask that your office provide a list and cost estimate for all of those projects. In addition, please reference the January lSth letter in which five (5) bulleted items were clearly set out for your office to address. Based upon your most recent response, at least three (3) of those bullets remain unanswered, including:

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An explanation of all factors and/or criteria used to establish the distribution formula for spending the $100 million in new capital funding (i.e., population; need; etc.), A description and/or mapping of what constitutes the Upstate and Downstate regions for purposes of distributing this new capital funding; and

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Commissioner Ash February 7,2008

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An explanation of horv and why $80 million of the new capital funding was allocated for Upstate and $20 million was allocated for the rest of New York State (or Downstate),

I am sure you can appreciate how helpful it is to have specific responses to the questions I present to you in order to clear up any misunderstandings that may exist, particularly when I am called upon to answer the exact same questions from the people I represent. As you know, a critical component of being a public servant is to build on one's existing knowledge by asking important questions on subjects where I may not directly have all the necessary information.

It is my hope that your off,tce will work cooperatively with me in gathering this 'information on behalf of the people I represent. Thank you in advance for your consideration and attention to this matter.

Flanagary Enclosures