TRENTON – Richard T. Hammer, commissioner for the state Department of Transportation, this afternoon told the Senate Budget Committee that local municipalities can expect to receive 2017 grant awards from his agency by the first week of June.

Those grants come as a consequence of a reinvigorated state Transportation Trust Fund (TTF).

“What do you say to those folks the TTF is now funded over the next eight years, the DOT too large, too bureaucratic to keep up the work?” state Senate Budget Chair Paul Sarlo (D-36) asked Hammer. “Does DOT have the resources?”

“The resources are absolutely there ,” Hammer said. ‘”W are ready and at full time employee level.”