GRAND ISLAND ACTIVIST RUS THOMPSON CONFRONTS GOVERNO ON GI TOLLS....CALLS ON LEGISLATORS TO PASS BILL NIXING TOLLS THIS YEAR...WILL PATERSON KEEP HIS PROMISE TO THOMPSON OR NOT?

For veteran anti-Grand Island tolls activist Rus Thompson it began with a call from local TV reporter Jackie Walker. Governor Paterson was coming to Niagara Falls and would be taking questions from real people, not just reporters.  If he came, there was a good chance he could get on the  list.

"I immediately told her I would come," Thompson recalls. "As it turned out, I got on the list. I wanted to ask Paterson if he would sign a bill that would eliminate the Grand Island tolls."

Why have the GI tolls become such a major preoccupation for Thompson?

"These tolls have brought economic development to a halt on Grand Island," he replies. "People don't want to move to Grand Island. They don't want to locate their businesses there because of the

As for the possibility of getting the Thruway Authority to nix the tolls, Thompson isn't optimistic.

"Some people talk about going to the Thruway Authority, but that isn't going to work," he contends.  "The NYS Thruway Authority takes our money that we pay every year and usues it to make repairs on their roads in other parts of the state. What is theThruway Authority doing controlling a road that is so far from the Thruway anyway? We are a cash cow for them while they spend $600 million on the state's canals! They arent' going to do anything to help us."

As a result, Thomspn took his crusade to eliminate the tolls directly to Paterson ast week.

"I spoke to him about the tremendous burden the tolls place on us," he reports. "I asked him to do everything he could to get them removed...At that point, Erie County Legislator Michele Iannello pointed out that legislation to eliminate the tolls had been introduced in the Assembly by Sam Hoyt. Finally, I got the Governor to promise that if that bill was passed by both houses of the Legislature, that he would sign it."
Of course, the Gov did back off somewhat from that promise later on that same day through his staff. Nevertheless, just getting Paterson to offer that promise was a major coup.

"Up to this point, the bill  hasn't been introduced in the new session of the Legislature," Thompson acklowedles. "So we are trying to get Assembly Member Hoyt to reintroduce the bill in the Assembly and Senators Antoine Thompson and George Maziarz to introduce it in the Senate....Once we get the bill passed, then the ball will be in Gov. Paterson's court. Will David Paterson keep his promise to me or not?"