The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
General Assembly tables tolls; likely dead for the year
HARTFORD — The General Assembly — divided politically and mindful of the fall elections — is walking away from electronic highway tolls as a source of money to repair Connecticut’s crumbling bridges and congested highways.
House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz, DBerlin, on Wednesday conceded his Democratic majority does not have the votes to move a bill through the House and begin the process of implementing tolls. “When you have people that want to paint the picture that Connecticut sucks and any new thing will force people out of the state, it’s tough to overcome,” Aresimowicz said.
The legislative failure of an initiative backed by outgoing Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and the General Assembly’s Democratic leadership is a major political blow and a telling example of the Legislature’s inability to accomplish much before the May 9 deadline to adjourn the legislative session.
Lawmakers are facing re-election this fall and a resurgent Republican minority is increasingly flexing its muscle, fueled by a tie in the state Senate between the two parties and the occasional defections of Democrats.
Republicans cast tolls as another tax in an already overtaxed state, and made it clear they would not go along. Instead, the GOP proposed a budget that rejects tolls — and Democratic initiatives for new taxes on tires and gas — and relies on borrowing to fund transportation improvements.
“We have a plan that has no taxes or tolls and gives $1 billion a year (to transportation),” said Senate Republican Leader
Len Fasano, R-North Haven.
“As we stand now there is no money for infrastructure projects,” Fasano said. “This governor has done nothing about infrastructure and that is shameful.”
No more money
The plan to toll Interstate 95 and the state’s other highways, parkways and four-lane routes grew out of a desperate realization that the Special Transportation Fund, the state’s source of highway and bridge funding, will be broke by 2020.
The fiscal situation is so dire that Malloy earlier this year canceled $4.3 billion in planned road and bridge projects and said the state is unable to sell bonds for routine repairs.
A phased-in 10 percent increase in Metro-North fares will go into effect July 1 if additional revenue is not found, and the branch lines will close on the weekends. Bus fares are also set to rise.
The solution offered by Malloy and the Democratic leadership was a projected $1.3 billion in annual revenue from tolls, higher gas taxes, car sales taxes and a $3 fee on tire purchases.
Democrats sweetened the deal with toll discounts and noted another vote would be required to place gantries — the electronic scanning devices that read plates and passes — over highways.
But Republicans refused to budge.
“The speaker has heard his members very clearly and the people of the state and their feelings on tolls,” said House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, R-Derby.
“These are all pie in the sky ideas,” Klarides said of tolls and the Democratic plan. “(Aresimowicz) knows he does not have the votes and he knows people are concerned.”
Klarides and the GOP leadership said the budget released Wednesday contains no new taxes, funds transportation, restores Medicare subsidies for seniors and funding for towns and cities, and pays down deficits in retirement accounts.
Malloy said the GOP budget spends $120 million more than his spending plan while decimating funding for the University of Connecticut, the Department of Children and Families and the STF.
“Connecticut Republicans are living in a land of make-believe, where their values and their priorities change by the hour,” Malloy said. “They’ve officially become the party of Paul Ryan.”
‘Taking hits’
Aresimowicz blamed a “misinformation” campaign against tolls for the failure to gain enough votes, even within his own majority caucus.
“We are taking a lot of hits and taken a lot of calls,” Aresimowicz said, referring to opposition against tolls. “Some of my members are saying ‘you want me to be this courageous legislator, but will it ever become law?’ ”
The speaker acknowledged the looming election for legislators and a new governor is also a factor.
“I get that we have to be cognizant of the political ramifications,” Aresimowicz said. “I’m willing to put my election on the line over tolls and I think more people should. The Republican plan is to squeeze out all other bonding and leave the debt to our children and their children.”
But State Sen. Toni Boucher, R-Wilton, said the Democrats’ failure to pass tolls was also about spending and the use of bonding power.
“They are using (bonding) for pet projects,” Boucher said. “That’s why there was such a crusade against tolls.”
Jim Cameron, founder of the Commuter Action Group and a Hearst Connecticut Media columnist, said tolls have been “kicked down the road” once again — along with a chance to do something to improve transportation.
“As our roads and bridges continue to deteriorate, I hope the anti-toll forces are happy that they are continuing their free ride at the expense of mass transit patrons,” Cameron said.