Mark Lungariello, The Journal News

A panel discussion of issues facing Putnam, Rockland and Westchester counties turns into a discussion of how the state handles its finances.

TARRYTOWN – The elected leaders of Putnam, Rockland and Westchester counties say the state mishandled several billion dollars worth of legal settlements that could have been used to update and repair the region’s deteriorating infrastructure and pothole-ridden roadways.

New York state’s more than $5 billion windfall, the majority of which came from legal settlements with multinational banks, became a focal pointfocal point of recent state budget negotiations. But Putnam County Executive Mary Ellen Odell said she was surprised that, after what she called a nuclear winter, aid for road repairs increased by only $10 million across the state.

Odell spoke Monday at the Double Tree Hilton as part of a panel hosted by Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress, a Newburgh-based business and academic advocacy group. Spending on roads and infrastructure would help bring back jobs, she said.

“We learned that in the Roosevelt era,” she said.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration agreed to tag much of the one-time windfall for broad economic-development funds, including $1.5 billion for an upstate development competition. Of the total, $1.3 billion will aid the struggling state Thruway Authority and keep tolls from increasing in the immediate future.

Rockland County Executive Ed Day and Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino had sought to have a chunk of the money used to offset the cost of the $3.9 billion Tappan Zee Bridge replacement project. The three county leaders are Republicans; Cuomo is a Democrat.

Day said he has contacted the state Department of Transportation about the number of potholes on state-owned roads in Rockland, but lack of resources has meant the department has been slow to fill them or make other repairs.

“Anyone who drives these roads will lose their teeth or get hemorrhoids,” he said.

Astorino, who ran unsuccessfully as the Republican nominee for governor against Cuomo last year, said counties act as “a huge ATM” for the state.

“Things are going to get worse, they’re not going to get better,” he said of the need for road, sewer and water-line maintenance. “And they’re sort of just shoveling the money around the state for all this nonsense political stuff and it’s unfortunate.”