The state Department of Transportation?s plan to put commercial billboards on two more Long Island parkways is sparking debate about corporate sponsorship of public property.

Billboards can already be seen on the LIE and Sunrise Highway, but the DOT wants to put them on the Northern and Southern State parkways as well. It says it?s all for the good of the public. The plan is to use private advertising money to remove trash on the parkways.

New York parks official George Gorman says the state is analyzing the idea to see if the public would find it acceptable.

Some drivers say the idea rubs them the wrong way and say Robert Moses built the parkways to be free of commercialism.

"What they were intended to be was private and just country Long Island, which is changing completely every day,? Violet Quackenbush, of West Islip, says.

Others say it?s not a far cry from amphitheaters and ballparks being named after corporations, which people have gotten used to. If taxpayers aren?t footing the bill for the parkway cleanup, what?s the difference they argue?The DOT says the signs would save more than $400,000 a year in trash cleanup costs.