Connecticut should rethink its $10 million toll study

The state is poised to spend $10 million on a toll study to push forward a new revenue source to shore up the Special Transportation Fund, which is projected to go broke in the early 2020s if a sustainable source of new revenue isn’t found. The fund’s current revenue stream is funded by gas receipts — but those receipts are shrinking as more fuelefficient vehicles are being manufactured and purchased by consumers.

The State Bond Commission authorized the multi million-dollar study July 25 to look at tolling, per-mile prices, which roads should be tolled and how much money could be made.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who ordered the study, postulates that by putting tolls on highways such as Interstate 84, 95, and 91, the Merritt Parkway and Route 8, the state could rake in as much as $1 billion a year.

That is some seriously needed revenue for a cashdepleted state. And any new source of revenue must be considered as Connecticut works its way back to financial stability.

But the study is not something many Connecticut residents or some politicians are jumping up and down about.

As the saying goes, the devil is in the details.

In touting the plan, Malloy never mentions that up to 70 percent of Nutmeggers would be paying for these tolls, according to state Rep. Chris Davis, R-Ellington, who voted against the study.

Republicans say the move by Malloy and the bond commission go around the legislature, and tolls simply represent a new tax in an already overtaxed state.

Davis notes that Connecticut “has spent millions of dollars on tolling already” and “a transportation panel (had already) looked at tolling,” therefore, lawmakers should already have the information they need and spending $10 million is unnecessary.

We, too, question why this information isn’t already at the General Assembly’s fingertips as the feasibility of bringing back tolls has been discussed and debated in Hartford again and again and — as Davis puts it — could have been taken up over “the last seven and a half years.”

The state spending $10 million on the study with the financial challenges it faces is downright puzzling. If a study were needed, we wonder if this could have been done as a project through Yale, UConn, Quinnipiac or another school?

There is no doubt the state has transportation woes and faces a massive undertaking to bring aging and neglected roads and infrastructure up to 21st century safety standards as more drivers hit the roads.

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

The state also must find a way to meet the demands of commuters as more people utilize trains and buses to get to work.

So, it is clear the money chest for the Special Transportation Fund needs a serious infusion.

But we disagree that spending $10 million to advise the state where tolls should be erected and how much revenue they are expected to generate is the first step to do it.

The decision seems to follow a trail leading to why Connecticut finds itself mired in debt.

Connecticut should rethink its $10 million toll study.