ALBANY - A single italicized word on the I Love NY highway signs has emerged as a key sticking point as Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration tries to negotiate its way out of a $14 million federal penalty set to become permanent at the end of the month.
New York has until Sept. 30 to remove the roughly 500 blue signs lining the state's highways to get back the $14 million, which the Federal Highway Administration withheld in February after repeatedly warning the signage violates federal rules and state law while posing a safety hazard for drivers.
But emails and draft proposals obtained by the USA TODAY Network's Albany Bureau shed light on the state's behind-the-scenes negotiations with federal regulators to try to avoid the penalty and keep a portion of the controversial signs up.
They show:
• Cuomo's administration has proposed taking down the roughly 400 "follow-up" signs, while keeping up 122 "motherboard" signs. As it stands, one motherboard is followed by four follow-up signs in quick succession.
• A key disagreement has been over a single word — the final word of the phrase "The New York State Experience" — on the motherboard signs. The state wants to keep it in italics — which the federal regulators say impacts a driver's ability to comprehend the sign at highway speeds.
• Cuomo's office has agreed to take the I Love NY website address and app name off the signs, which had been a major point of contention.
The correspondence, obtained under the federal Freedom of Information Act, shows Cuomo's Washington office has taken a lead role in negotiating with the FHWA, which has promised to return the $14 million in federal highway funds if the signs come down or it strikes a deal with the state before the end of the month.
"I'm at a loss as how the font of the word 'experience' has us stuck," Alexander Cochran, special counsel to the governor, wrote in a June email.
"My very senior people don't understand it either."
NY's plan: Leave 122 signs up
The Cuomo administration's proposals to the FHWA have all basically come down to this: Take down 400 or so signs, leave up 100 or so.
The latest proposal included in the correspondence came in June, when Cuomo's Washington office proposed a plan to keep up 122 motherboard signs at airports, entries to the state and key points within the state's 10 regions.
The proposed signs were nearly identical to the current motherboards, containing the four logos for the state's tourism programs, which are meant to serve as a legend when the logos appear on signs for attractions near highway exits.
Read: New York's June proposal
The state relented on a key sticking point for the federal regulators: It pulled advertisements for the state's tourism website and I Love NY app, which are on the current signs. The feds have long said that poses an unnecessary distraction for drivers.
It also included a pledge to have University at Buffalo researchers study driver tendencies when interacting with the signs; whether the signage accounts for an increase in crashes; and whether the signs actually bolster business to tourism-related entities — a requirement for federal approval.
"My belief is that we have given in or compromised on major issues from the amount and the website, .com and pulling down 400 signs and more," Cochran wrote June 7 to Martin Knopp, the fourth-ranking official at the FHWA, and Anthony Bedell, the U.S. Department of Transportation's deputy assistant secretary for intergovernmental affairs.
In a statement Tuesday, FHWA spokesman Doug Hecox said conversations "are still ongoing," directing further questions about the state's plans to the state Department of Transportation.
Sticking points
The FHWA has maintained that the state's current I Love NY signs, which remain up in all parts of the state, are unnecessary distractions, pulling drivers' eyes off the road and giving no real information that is of use to them while driving.
The federal administration had denied the state's request to experiment with I Love NY signage in 2013 — which Cuomo's administration ultimately ignored.
The emails and proposals make clear the state has little leverage in the negotiations, with federal regulators sticking to their concerns about fonts and requiring detailed plans to study traffic patterns if a deal is struck.
In another June 7 email, Kylah Hynes of Cuomo's Washington office identified two sticking points in negotiations: "Experience" written in italics on the signs, and whether an entire region of the state should be sign-free to allow for a comparison in the traffic study.
The previous day, Knopp wrote to Hynes, explaining why italic letters is a "show-stopper" to the FHWA.
The stroke and spacing between letters is "critical to legibility and recognition at highway speeds," Knopp wrote.
Italic letters have a tendency to "blur or distort the letter form from a distance," which is why the federal government requires the "bland and boring" standard alphabet on roadway signs, he explained.
"We're not trying to be bureaucratic but instead consider human factors for devices to perform the best possible as well as support drivers that have a wide range of disabilities," Knopp wrote.
Cochran, special counsel to the governor, wasn't having it.
"There are a lot of welcome signs with different fonts or whatever and that's how this whole experiment started in the first place," he wrote.
What's next?
If the two sides are close to a deal, they aren't letting it on publicly.
Spokespeople for the FHWA and state Department of Transportation acknowledged their agencies continue to talk ahead of the Sept. 30 deadline, but neither were willing to give indication of whether an agreement will be struck.
"We are in ongoing discussions with FHWA and will provide an update once we've reached a mutually beneficial agreement," state DOT spokesman Joseph Morrissey said in a statement Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the new federal fiscal year begins Oct. 1.
If the signs remain up then, the FHWA could choose to withhold more funding from the state — on top of the $14 million.