CORTLAND -- The state budget battle has hit the construction industry hard.
In Cortland, Suit Kote laid off 150 workers a couple of months ago when funding for state projects was withheld, but a few weeks ago 60 of those workers were brought back on board.
The employees are working on road reconstruction on Route 90 in Cayuga County.
The construction company decided to foot the bill on a $3-million state project, which New York already approved and promised the money for last year.
But construction contracts across the state have been held up in the budget struggle, since the money has been left out of the emergency extender bills.
Suit Kote says in order to get workers back on payroll, it had no choice but to front the cost, and will wait to be reimbursed by New York. But, the company is nearing it's credit line and needs that state funding by July to continue the construction.
"It's very risky but the reason that we made the decisions is mainly because of the families. These are people who have worked for us, in many cases, for decades. And we made the decision that we couldn't allow them to miss enough weeks where they might not qualify for unemployment and we needed to make sure they can provide for their families,” said Brian Renna with Suit Kote.
Meanwhile, Suit Kote hopes the state budget battle will end soon, because time is ticking on the summer construction season.
