From the No Kidding File: Trucks bring money

ALBANY, N.Y. — An organization called the Capitol Hill Research Center (CHRC) just released the results of a study designed to see what curtailing truck traffic would do to a community’s wealth, and the answer is as plain as the nose on your Pete. 

Keeping big trucks out of town is a sure fire way to hurt the economy. Whooda thunk?

Last September, the NY State Department of Transportation (DOT) proposed curtailing truck traffic on 64 state highways across New York. The proposal was later scaled back to only seven highways; all of them in the Finger Lake District. 

The DOT said truck traffic should be curtailed to achieve "harmonious balance" with local aesthetic values.

In response, CHRC did its research thing and came up with the answer. You kill truck traffic; you kill jobs.

Using assumptions based on input from some of the region’s core industries — agriculture, forest products and retailing — the study found that the proposed regulation would have a major adverse impact. The report states that combined job losses could easily be in the thousands.

(Included in those losses, obviously, would be those suffered by the trucking business itself, which would be out some $4.2 million and about 50 jobs.)

"There’s no good time to restrict the flow of commerce, but doing so in the middle of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression is especially troublesome," said Brian Buff, director of the research center based in Albany. "The state acknowledges this adverse economic effect, but inexplicably believes that it will be limited to just one industry."

The DOT proposed restriction on travel on the seven roads is now under review by the Governor’s Office of Regulatory Reform.