ALBANY – The federally imposed deadline for when the ‘I Love NY’ signs are suppose to be removed is just a few weeks away, but many of the billboards remain up.
The battle over the “I Love NY” signs along highways dates back to 2013, when the federal government denied the state’s request to erect an early version of the signage.
The federal government then docked the state $14 million in funding for not following their standards.
In June, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo pledged to remove and replace the controversial signs by the end of the summer tourism season following an order by the Federal Highway Administration.
Since then. officials have begin removing much of the signage.
If the roughly 500 I Love New York signs that remain are not down in the coming weeks, the state will not be getting its $14 million back.
There is still no word on how much it will cost to take all these signs down.
