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Long Island Business, Government Leaders To Albany: Invest In Our Infrastructure

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- A coalition of union and business leaders and elected officials gathered Monday to urge state lawmakers and the governor to dedicate more of the state's $5 billion in surplus money to rebuilding Long Island's roads and bridges.

"How are you going to get to the Nassau Hub if you can't drive on the Northern State Parkway that's constantly being closed because of the flooding," Marc Herbst, who leads the group Rebuild NY Now, told reporters, including WCBS 880 Long Island Bureau Chief Mike Xirinachs.

"The bridges in Nassau County, according to the state DOT (Department of Transportation), 61.9 percent of them are functionally obsolete," Herbst added. "Suffolk, over 50 percent are functionally obsolete."

Long Island Business, Government Leaders To Albany: Invest In Our Infrastructure

Rebuilding the infrastructure is an investment in the future, said Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos.

"If we don't turn our economy around, we're going to continue to lose our young people," he said. We're going to continue to lose population."

Herbst said that for every billion dollars spent on infrastructure, 28,000 jobs are created.

"And we need those," he said.

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