Tag: Will Haskell

"The Merritt Parkway Improvement Project has been going on for as long as I've been alive," remarked State Sen. Will Haskell (D-Westport).

“We need a massive, likely bi-partisan plan" to fully fund the initiative, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal said. “And we need the two Joes – Biden and (U.S. Sen.) Manchin (D-West Virginia) -- to get behind it.”

Similar measures have failed over the past five years.

Tim Kraemer, executive vice president and general manager at BMW of Bridgeport, said the bill's passage would “hurt not only the auto industry, it will hurt the Connecticut consumer.”

The bill seeks to “construct, maintain and operate electronic tolling systems on Interstate Route 84, Interstate Route 91, Interstate Route 95 and portions of Connecticut Route 15.”

"Connecticut's realtors have their fingers on the pulse of our state economy -- when markets are looking strong, they're often the first ones to see it," said State Sen. Will Haskell (D-26th), the first Democrat to get the group's nod in that district in a decade.

“This is not a time to just speak out and then go back to business,” Gov. Ned Lamont said. “Let’s not let this crisis go to waste.”

A new Hartford Courant/Sacred Heart University poll shows growing public support for Gov. Ned Lamont’s 10-year, $19 billion CT2030 plan, which includes tolls for tractor-trailers on 12 highway bridges around the state -- as well as rising public approval of the governor's performance.

Although a pair of chefs who said they were unfairly dismissed are due $200,000, no payments from Matsu Sushi have been made.

"Recent reports of worker exploitation are simply wrong and solely meant to damage the reputation of the Matsu Sushi restaurant in Westport," its owners say.

The tolls issue is pitting a deep-pocketed, pro-tolls coalition called Move CT Forward against a grassroots group with the straightforward moniker No Tolls CT.

"The transportation crisis in Connecticut is too large a problem to get bogged down in partisan politics,” according to Senate President Pro Tempore Martin M. Looney (D-New Haven).

"It’s important to lead with the carrot and not force peoples’ hands,” the governor said.

The bill would consolidate school districts in towns with a total population of less than 40,000.