Gov. Ned Lamont and state Democratic lawmakers have decided to join forces behind a “trucks-only” toll system, much to the dismay of state Republicans.
Senate Democrats had rejected the tolls portion of Lamont”™s 10-year, $21 billion CT2030 transportation plan, which would have installed 14 gantries around the state, partly due to fears that okaying tolls could cost them in next fall”™s election.
House Democrats then made their own proposal, which would install toll gantries for trucks only at 12 locations. Those include a gantry on a 1.4-mile stretch of I-684 in New York State that runs by Greenwich ”“ but does not include a Greenwich exit ”“ has resulted in vocal opposition from New York commuters and lawmakers.
But it is that plan that the governor and fellow Democrats now are supporting, following a meeting at the capitol yesterday.
Senate President Pro Tem Martin Looney, who had led the opposition to CT2030”™s toll component, said the plan now is to push tolls through via a special legislative session. “We need to get this done now,” he said. “We don”™t want the issue to drag into the 2020 session. We think we have momentum on that issue, and the time to move is now.”
State Republicans have remained steadfast in their opposition to tolls, preferring their FASTR CT proposal, which would involve borrowing $1.5 billion from Connecticut”™s budget reserve fund, or “rainy day fund” ”“ a plan whose fiscal soundness has been questioned by some, especially in case of a recession.
Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano told reporters after the meeting with Lamont that “Truck tolling is a non-starter,” and maintained that the Democrats would eventually get around to including tolls for all vehicles.
He later issued a statement describing the Democrats”™ remarks as “nothing but political talking points defending their insatiable desire to tax people more.
“They want tolls, they want to borrow more, they want more tax revenue from Connecticut residents ”“ on top of their new taxes on plastic bags and groceries,” Fasano continued. “They do not want to work with Republicans to do what is truly best for our state and its residents. They want tolls. Period.”
“Sen. Fasano must be talking about a completely different meeting and a totally different plan,” said Max Reiss, the governor”™s communications director. “Today, Gov. Lamont asked legislative leaders from both sides of the aisle to come together and discuss for nearly two hours how to grow the state”™s economy and fix its broken transportation system.
“For the last several months,” Reiss continued, “the governor”™s administration has invested considerably in collaboratively working towards a bipartisan solution ”“ one that included Sen. Fasano. The spirit of today”™s discussion was a continuation of that effort.
“It”™s unfortunate that Sen. Fasano has decided to walk away from the discussion and finding a solution simply because his colleagues rejected his plan to raid $1.5 billion from the state”™s budget reserves, risking the state”™s fiscal future and leaving hundreds of thousands of Connecticut families at risk in the event of an economic downturn,” Reiss added. “We don”™t need a reminder of what happened the last time we did that. We”™ve been down this road before, and it led to tax increases and service cuts.
“Further, it”™s a shame that after all of this time, Sen. Fasano repays it with cheap political jabs, which do nothing to advance the dialogue or fix the problem ”“ all because he”™s not getting his way,” Reiss concluded.
new tax ned
Any sensible transportation-infrastructure creation/improvement “plan” is bound to result in expensive, problematic transportation situations if it is created and executed without having as its basis a comprehensive plan of development driven by a long-term vision for the state.
The state failing of Connecticut is being governed and taxed in the absence of any long-term vision and comprehensive plan of development. This is a huge problem for our state and a symptom of its continuing, unaddressed socioeconomic process of FAILURE…
Connecticut is failing — dying — economically, because it is in the hands of those comfortable, secure few who seek to maintain the status quo.
The Lamont transportation “plan” simply seeks to maintain the status quo without regard to how that policy resonates with the momentum of the socioeconomic failure — the socioeconomic quicksand — being created by the Lamont status-quo governance of the state…
In the absence of a real transportation-infrastructure plan created as a facilitating aspect of a comprehensive plan of economic development for the state, the only money spent on transportation infrastructure for the state should be for safety considerations and basic maintenance. And no new tolls/taxes should be levied for transportation projects unless they are earmarked for use in the execution of a long-term, comprehensive vision/plan of economic development for the state. We currently have no such plan, and therefore we shouldn’t create a toll-money pool for (problematic) status-quo-maintaining transportation-infrastructure development…
No clear, comprehensive, economic-development plan, NO TOLLS…