Tompkins County highway staff told the Facilities and Infrastructure Committee on June 26 that the county received an unanticipated $402,000 increase in CHIPS funding and proposed a budget adjustment to accept and spend the money for additional paving work.

Jeff, highway department staff, said the added $402,000 "would enable us to basically raise both our expenditure and our revenue" and would allow the department to "pave another 2 and a half miles of road this year." He said without the resolution the money would roll over to the next year, which the state disfavors.

County administration staff said they did not oppose accepting the funds but requested time to review whether the department should expand the work plan, or instead adjust local borrowing assumptions in light of the extra state money. Corsa (county administration) explained the options: "Do we just expand the amount of work we want to do, or do we do some cost rationalization whereby we can move around the CHIPS a bit" and potentially reduce local borrowing. Administration said the department has time to finalize plans and that not passing the resolution immediately would not curtail paving season.

Committee members debated timing and planning. Some lawmakers expressed a preference to use the CHIPS money for the highway program as intended and to avoid reducing county-local investment in roads. Others supported moving the resolution forward but holding the option to pull it from the legislature’s agenda if administration and the highway manager develop an alternative spending plan before final legislative action. The committee agreed to advance the resolution out of committee while flagging administration’s request for further review.

No formal roll-call vote tally was recorded in the transcript; the committee chair indicated the measure would be forwarded to the legislature and retained the option to withdraw it if the departments produce a different proposal before the full-legislature deadline.