Borrello Asks Hochul, Again, To Delay E-Bus Mandate
Joseph Reyda, Bemus Point Central School superintendent, is worried district voters’ defeat of a proposition to buy electric school buses and accept an EPA grant is a sign of things to come.
Reyda wrote a letter to state Sen. George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay, in the wake of the September 5 vote by district residents that defeated a bond anticipation note that would have allowed the district to move forward with an EPA rebate award for the purchase of two electric buses as well as charging infrastructure for the district bus garage. The proposition was defeated 143-132.
“Based on the feedback shared with us from the Board of Election poll workers and other school employees, the majority of community members who voted were simply not in favor of electric school buses,” Reyda wrote in his letter to Borrello. “It didn’t matter how much the district received in financial incentives, they did not support the political process that put this mandate into place. They firmly believed that a ‘no’ vote would stop the process to transition to electric school buses.”
Reyda’s worry, articulated in his letter to Borrello, is how the district can meet the state’s mandate to begin purchasing electric school buses by the state’s 2027 deadline for schools to no longer purchase diesel-powered buses. Two buses are on the district’s May 2025 budget vote, and Reyda said he sees the handwriting on the wall.
“My fear is that this, too, will be defeated, leaving the district with the inability to replace an aging school bus fleet,” Reyda wrote. “This action also would reduce our transportation aid revenue. A reduction in our revenue will result in a greater tax burden placed on our community members. I feel caught in a vicious cycle with no end in sight.”
Borrello, for his part, called on Gov. Kathy Hochul to delay the state’s 2027 deadline for school districts to begin purchasing electric school buses. Borrello has also introduced legislation (S.8467) in the state Senate to both eliminate the zero-emission bus mandate as well as authorize the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority to conduct a study to determine the feasibility of converting school buses to zero-emission vehicles. Borrello specifically wants NYSERDA to analyze the conversion for rural, suburban and urban school districts.
On Thursday, Borrello called on Hochul to clarify how the state will proceed in the wake of yet another defeat of a school district’s proposition to purchase electric school buses. Bemus Point voters’ defeat of the bond anticipation note follows votes by voters in Baldwinsville, Cortland, Ithaca, Newfield and Mexico denying electric bus purchases by their school districts. Herkimer has defeated an electric bus proposition since the Bemus Point vote.
“My question to the Hochul administration is, ‘where do we go from here’? The school officials are trapped between the state mandate and their district taxpayers,” Borrello said. “The voters obviously don’t want this forced on them by the state, at least not now. This is one more example of how Albany’s haste to push through a radical law, without due diligence and stakeholder input, has backfired. My legislation replacing the mandate with a pilot program would allow schools to test how these buses perform before taxpayer monies are spent. I am urging the Governor to listen to the message voters are sending and pump the brakes on this mandate. Unless we come up with a more sensible plan, school administrators may have to divert funding away from supporting our kids and teachers in order to meet this senseless virtual-signaling mandate from Albany. We must not allow that to happen.”