$10M toll study gets approval

Bond Commission looking at routes, costs, revenue

HARTFORD — The State Bond Commission on Wednesday moved Connecticut a step closer to electronic tolls on state highways and four-lane routes.

The commission authorized a $10 million study to look at tolling, per-mile prices, which roads should be tolled and how much money could be made.

The state estimates tolling highways such as Interstate 84, Interstate 95, Interstate 91, the Merritt Parkway and Route 8 could bring in as much as $1 billion a year.

“The undeniable truth is that our Special Transportation Fund needs a new, reliable revenue source,” said Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who ordered the study.

“While Connecticut made important adjustments to the STF in recent years, those fixes only addressed our immediate, shortterm concerns,” Malloy said.

“In order to ensure our bridges don’t collapse or close due to unsafe conditions, and to ensure that our highways remain open and operational, we need to explore additional revenue options,” Malloy said.

Republicans opposed the toll study, saying the move goes around the Legislature, and tolls represent a new tax in an already overtaxed state.

A similar study was considered during the recently completed legislative session and moved out of several committees, but was not put before the Senate or House for a vote.

“What we have heard from the people of Connecticut is that they don’t see a need to have a $10 million study,” said state Rep. Chris Davis, R-Ellington. who voted against the study.

“The state has spent millions of dollars on tolling already,” Davis said. “A transportation panel looked at tolling. If you wanted to do this, it could have been done over the last sevenand-a-half years.”

’Pickpocket the people’

The state is facing a transportation crisis and the STF is projected to go broke in the early 2020s if a sustainable source of new revenue — beyond shrinking gas tax receipts due to more fuel-efficient vehicles — is not found.

Congestion on I-95, especially in Fairfield County, is blamed for blocking economic development and funding to undertake projects such as widening I-84 in Danbury and I-95 between Greenwich and Bridgeport is uncertain.

State Senate Republican President Len Fasano, RNorth Haven, said Republicans have offered a plan, based on future bonding and prioritizing transportation projects, that avoids tolls.

“Republicans have offered a solution that would significantly boost transportation funding within current state resources without taxes or tolls,” Fasano said.

“Just think of what we could do if the Republican plan were rolled out over the long term,” Fasano said. “We could actually make transportation a true priority for our state and provide stable, long-term funding.”

Fasano said Malloy’s desire to “pickpocket the people of Connecticut through tolls” stands in the way.

“If you listen to Gov. Malloy, you would think that while the state has a short-term transportation solution, we have absolutely no options for the long term besides tolls,” Fasano said. “This is fundamentally false.”

Malloy said the Republican plan does not provide enough money to relieve congestion and fix the state’s roads and bridges, and sacrifices other important spending.

“We need new options,” Malloy said. “We need them just so that we can put our infrastructure into a state of good repair, let alone build the kind of dynamic transportation system that our employers demand, and that our residents deserve.”

Democratic Party-endorsed candidate for governor Ned Lamont said he opposed spending money on the study and reiterated his support for only tolling out-of-state truckers.

Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim, who is challenging Lamont in the Democratic primary, supported the study and said out-of-state drivers should be charged a higher fee.

Just say no

Davis said state residents do not want tolls and disputed the suggestion that the Republican plan is insufficient.

“We know tolls would be a massive tax increase for the residents of Connecticut.” Davis said.

State Treasurer Denise Nappier, a Democrat and a bond commission member, abstained from the vote, although she said she did not oppose tolls.

Nappier urged the state to also look at changing existing rules so public and private partnerships could be developed to fund major transportation projects.

“There is momentum of increased participation in infrastructure transportation investments, from bankers, insurance companies and pension funds,” Nappier said.