New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Let’s not make yet another policy mistake
Over many years, Hartford has made numerous poor policy choices that have caused our beloved state to fall from No. 1 to Nos. 49 and 50 in far too many important categories. Let’s not allow our representatives to make yet another decision that will surely exacerbate our already sub-par economy and business environment, let alone hurt those who can least afford another tax burden.
Unbelievably, House Leadership has literally called us “moronic” to even be looking at the issue of tolls and offering your opinion. Nothing could be further from the truth — you are well-read, intelligent people who are smart enough to know whether the concept of tolling is a good idea or not. It is a required element of a healthy democracy that voters let their representatives know their thoughts, and I highly encourage all of us to do just that without the threat of having state funding cut if you do not like the idea of tolls.
You have already paid for your roads and bridges through your income tax payments, gas tax, gross receipts tax and registration fees. Additional charges to use the highways can only be considered a new tax. If there is any doubt about this, I strongly urge you to take a look at the Pennsylvania experience (Google “PA Toll Disaster” and read any of many articles that pop up). In short, legislators there have turned the tolling system into a revenue generator for other parts of state government, have raised toll rates 11 times in as many years, have become nearly insolvent with $11.8 billion in debt and have done the bare minimum in terms of infrastructure investment.
It is very hard to believe that that any potential toll revenues would be reserved solely for transportation purposes. We have been led to believe that there is a “lockbox” in place. Hartford has fooled you again. I was in the room of the Government, Administration and Elections Committee when the majority party, against our strong protests, rewrote the language of the Constitutional amendment to allow for revenues to be diverted to General Fund accounts instead of the Special Transportation Fund. This was a huge disservice to the people of Connecticut, and the provision needs to be modified as soon as possible.
The proposed solution to our infrastructure challenge has been on the table for nearly three years now. Using existing bonding capacity and re-prioritizing our needs away from wasteful projects, we could begin to immediately fund major infrastructure projects. This is not “putting incremental expenses on the credit card” as those who don’t want to understand this approach continually state. This is well within our current bonding capacity and Gov. Ned Lamont’s “debt diet” proposal. Given the long lead times of many of the overdue projects, we need to get going now; not in five years.
Additionally, we should be very skeptical of proposals to enter into a private public partnership (P3) when it comes to tolls as opposed to, for example, a train station with retail, commercial and residential space. Private partners will always be looking for a return. Macquarie, one of the largest banks in the world involved in infrastructure plays, looks for at least a 7 percent return. Our cost of borrowing? It is currently half that. As a side note, there is no shortage of examples of P3 disasters prompting former Congressman Jim Oberstar, while Chair of the House Transportation Committee, to argue publicly and loudly that P3 deals simply trample the public’s interest.
Finally, House Bill 7280 is a
You have already paid for your roads and bridges through your income tax payments, gas tax, gross receipts tax and registration fees. Additional charges to use the highways can only be considered a new tax.
legislative embarrassment in that it would allow a final tolling plan to lapse into law after 15 days if there is no vote in either the House or the Senate. This is the kind of poor legislative procedure that has driven our state to the bottom in every important ranking.
Let’s not make another public policy mistake that Connecticut simply can’t afford. We owe it to future generations to leave our infrastructure, as well as our balance sheet, in better shape than we found it.