ALBANY - The blue I Love NY road signs that dot New York's highways will soon come down, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration.
Cuomo's top transportation officials announced Friday the state would soon remove the controversial highway signs, which have been at the center of a bitter, years-long feud between the federal government and the state over their safety and legality.
The announcement came a day after the Federal Highway Administration docked the state $14 million in highway funds for installing the signs and ignoring various warnings to remove them.
The federal administration gave the state until Sept. 30 to remove the signs and receive its money back.
In a joint statement, state Acting Transportation Commissioner Paul Karas and Matthew Driscoll, acting executive director of the Thruway Authority, the signs will be removed and replaced well before the deadline.
They painted the move as the ending of an advertising campaign, which Cuomo himself had also alluded to last year.
"As the current campaign and signs are entering their fifth year, this message has run its useful course and we already plan to launch a new ‘I Love NY’ campaign this summer to support our tourism industry," Karas and Driscoll said. "The new campaign will be 'NY has it all!'"
New York spent $8.1 million installing 514 of the I Love NY signs throughout the state since 2014.
The spending came despite a 2013 order from the FHWA prohibiting the state from putting such signs up.
Karas and Driscoll said the state plans to reuse materials from the current signs to install the new signs.
The signs will likely have to be approved by the Federal Highway Administration before they can be installed if the state is to get the $14 million.
"Existing materials will be reused but, as the signs will be redesigned for the new campaign, we will consult with FHWA during this process," Driscoll and Karas said in their statement.
"It will be a new campaign launched for the summer tourism cycle and as such must be concluded before the September FHWA deadline anyway."
The FHWA could not immediately be reached for comment.
New York State Department of Transportation released the following statement on the decision.
“The overwhelmingly successful ‘I Love NY’ campaign has supported and enhanced New York’s $105 billion tourism industry for five years. Since the Governor initiated this branding effort, the number of tourists to New York State has increased by 18 percent and the direct economic impact of tourism on the State has skyrocketed by more than 20 percent. From Greater Niagara to Long Island, ‘I Love NY’ signs have helped get motorists off the roads and into mom-and-pop restaurants, shops, and historic destinations. This increased traffic has in turn boosted local economies that aren’t typical tourist attractions.
As the current campaign and signs are entering their fifth year, this message has run its useful course and we already plan to launch a new ‘I Love NY’ campaign this summer to support our tourism industry. The new campaign will be “‘NY has it all!’” The campaign will have, as usual, comprehensive television and print advertising, as well as new road signage. Existing materials will be reused but, as the signs will be redesigned for the new campaign, we will consult with FHWA during this process. It will be a new campaign launched for the summer tourism cycle and as such must be concluded before the September FHWA deadline anyway."