Well, this is interesting. Historically New York City has had the right, backed up by the courts, to control the number of billboards that visually pollute our city as well as collect taxes on them. But the Daily News today notes that if the GOP in Albany has their way that all might change. See, in the budget resolution the State Senate adopted last week there is a tiny billboard provision (a sum total of three lines on page 42 in this 51-page document) which would put New York City billboards, and just our billboards, under the control of the NYS DOT. In the News' words this would be "a way to circumvent the city's overly restrictive zoning codes and allow more revenue-generating signs."
State Senator Martin Golden (R-Brooklyn) points out that the revenue we are talking about, the budget estimates $15 million, is nothing to scoff at. "That's a sizable amount of money that could be added to the [state] coffers."
But now that it has been noticed, at least folks in City Hall are doing their best to block it. "Illegal advertising signs would remain in locations where they do not belong, perpetuating visual pollution and esthetic harms," a Bloomberg aide fretted to state senators yesterday.
The billboard provision has so far not been included in Governor Cuomo's budget proposal or in the one from the Assembly. Considering the flack that our billboards get already, we'd hate to see what would happen if there were even more of them out there. Also, doesn't New York City already give enough tax money to the state?
