The aging Interstate 81 span that has divided the city of Syracuse both geographically and racially since the 1960s is scheduled to come down. The recently passed New York state budget includes an additional $1 billion to help remove the old viaduct and start work on what’s called the “community grid” plan to replace it.

Syracuse-area state Assemblywoman Pamela Hunter said as soon as final authorization from the federal government is received, construction will begin.

“As soon as that final authorization comes from the federal government, we’ll be ready to go. We allocated the portion that we needed to and we’re ready to get this project started,” Hunter said.

Hunter also said that kitchen table issues dominated a lot of the enacted budget.

“We have a huge amount of property tax cuts,” she said. “And as you know, I did…sponsor a piece of legislation relative to the gas cap. We are eliminating the state [tax] portion, .16 cents per gallon, through the end of the year, so that was one of the biggest issues.”

Hunter also touted money for rental and utility assistance for people who are in arrears due to the pandemic.

As for the changes to the bail law in the budget, Hunter explained that they were clearly important to voters.

“Public safety was the number one concern. We had changes [to bail] in 2020, and the clamoring for public safety was there,” Hunter said. “Hopefully we will be able to move on from this conversation on bail reform.”

During the balance of session, Assemblywoman Hunter will be advocating for the rollback of “qualified immunity," which refers to a law that protects government officials, including police officers, correctional officials and teachers, who are accused of violating constitutional rights.

“Qualified immunity is a legal doctrine that grants government officials immunity from civil suits. We just want to codify… that our constitutional rights are not violated by public servants. And if they are, we want to codify and make sure that municipalities solely are responsible for the actions of their employees,” Hunter explained.

She insists that her bill is not “an anti-police bill."

“This is making sure we’re protecting our constitutional rights. We have seen [that] Colorado, New Mexico [have] recently passed [such bills] and there was not any evidence or data showing that there was an increase in frivolous lawsuits,” Hunter said.