Fasano, Lamont trade verbal blows over progress on transportation, tolls and bonding
Gov. Ned Lamont and Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano are again trading verbal blows over a solution to Connecticut”™s transportation issues, with Lamont and fellow Democrats”™ preference for tolls being the main point of contention.
As previously reported, the governor is working with members of both parties to 
hold a special legislative session by Christmas to address several still-pending issues, including transportation and the state”™s annual bonding package, which includes money for municipalities to make improvements to their infrastructures.
“If the governor wants votes, we need answers and transparency,” Fasano wrote to Lamont following that news. “For months the governor has refused to share the bonding package with Republican lawmakers. And the public still has not been shown any details about the new House Democrat/Gov. Lamont combined tolling proposal.”
“Senator Fasano must hold a different definition of bipartisanship,” responded Lamont”™s Director of Communications Max Reiss. “The governor”™s administration has invested considerably in pursuing a bipartisan solution on transportation, working directly with Senator Fasano. That work involved countless meetings and discussions, a trip to Washington, D.C., to meet with the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Authority ”“ both of which are part of a Republican presidential administration, and the governor himself addressed the Senate Republican caucus.”
“Regarding Senator Fasano”™s aggressive claims that he”™s been left out of the budget and bonding discussions ”“ he”™s right,” Reiss continued. “He and every Republican in the General Assembly chose not to participate in them. They submitted no budget and presented no alternatives.
“As Senator Fasano knows full well, per the governor”™s insistence, the bonding bill, which is typically developed in the budget process, was separated out and put on hold until transportation was sorted out,” Reiss concluded. There has been no action on the bonding agenda because there has been no action on transportation. Now that progress is being made, those discussions will begin anew, which the governor stated yesterday.”
Should a special session not be called, the issues would presumably be voted upon during the next, regular legislative session, which runs from Feb. 5 to May 6.