The Federal Highway Administration is slapping the hands of New York to the tune of 14 million dollars.
Brandye Hendrickson of the FHWA sent a letter to the New York State Department of Transportation as well as the New York Thruway Authority notifying them that approximately 514 I Love NY road signs are in violation of a 2013 law.
The FHWA has locked up the state's 14 million dollars in federal highway funds. The funds will be reinstated if New York removes those signs by September 30th.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo bragged about the signs in his 2014 State of the State address. Cumo's administration has spent 8.1 million dollars installing the signs.
There was some controversy regarding the signs in the beginning, as a USA Today story indicated that the state paid contractors overtime, had some signs made out of the state and set up other contracts that increased the costs.
Documents show that the Federal Highway Administration has repeatedly notified Cumo's administration over the past 3 years that the signs were in violation of federal and state laws only to be ignored by the DOT.