Stamford Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Jack Condlin is headed to Hartford today, Nov. 5, to support Gov. Dannel Malloy”™s efforts to create a lockbox for transportation funds.
Condlin will arrive with a letter bearing the backing of multiple chambers of commerce and business organizations statewide, including his own and The Business Council of Fairfield County and The Connecticut Business and Industry Association, the state”™s largest business organization.
“I”™m going up to Hartford today for a 1 p.m. press conference to show support of the Connecticut businesses for the governor”™s efforts to create a lockbox for transportation funds,” Condlin said in sending the following signed letter to the Fairfield County Business Journal.
Re: Chambers of Commerce and Business Associations Support a Transportation Lockbox
Dear Senator or Representative:
The chambers of commerce and business associations across Connecticut support the local businesses that propel our economy. Mobility affords opportunities for our members to establish and grow their businesses that employ Connecticut workers. To our members, the state”™s transportation network does more than move goods and people from one place to another, it also functions as a platform that boosts and sustains the entire state economy.
Connecticut”™s transportation systems afford local businesses the ability to create, maintain and grow the jobs that generate tax revenues. In turn, the revenues support families, communities, schools and government. The ensuing economic activity completes the cycle that sustains our quality of life.
Three basic facts frame the challenges facing the transportation platform that shapes our prosperity. (The emphasis is from the letter.)
∙ Deficient transportation systems currently cost Connecticut travelers over $4.2 billion annually in lost time and money.
∙ It will cost at least $60 billion over the next 30 years simply to maintain the bare minimum service level on our rails, busses, roads and bridges that exists today.
∙ Connecticut transportation systems suffer from years of underinvestment. Part of this underinvestment was due to over $1.4 billion in transportation tax receipts being diverted to non-transportation programs in recent years.
The Connecticut General Assembly and the Malloy administration have taken the first necessary steps by enacting important transportation funding measures to reverse the decline. Those measures begin to address Connecticut”™s transportation challenges.
The next necessary step is to protect any dedicated funding that has been put in place specifically to meet identified transportation needs. Beyond providing for safe and efficient mobility, this will also send a strong message that Connecticut is serious about creating a path forward to economic stability and success.
We, the chambers of commerce and business associations across Connecticut, urge you to support a well-drafted constitutional amendment that creates a lockbox to protect the transportation investments that have been put in place. Establishing a constitutional lockbox that clearly identifies both specific transportation revenue streams and permitted transportation expenditures is a no-cost, fiscally prudent measure that will ensure Connecticut stays on a sustainable path. It will send a loud and clear message that Connecticut is honestly moving in the right direction.
There are only two options. You can go back to diverting the funding from the transportation platform that sustains our economy, or you can protect the funding that will drive stability and growth. We urge you to make the right choice and support a constitutional lockbox in the best interest of our safety, mobility and prosperity.
Sincerely,
Bridgeport Regional Business Council
Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut
Connecticut Business & Industry Association
Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce
Greater Norwalk Chamber of Commerce MetroHartford Alliance
Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce
Midstate Chamber of Commerce
Northwest Connecticut”™s Chamber of Commerce
Stamford Chamber of Commerce
The Business Council of Fairfield County
