Not one penny more

It takes a lot of nerve for Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and his legislative allies to propose tolls, a higher gas tax and a tire tax.

Over the last seven years, they’ve stuck us with the two biggest tax increases in state history; committed us to an extravagant government union agreement that practically guarantees budget shortfalls through 2027, and displayed wanton disregard for free enterprise that manifests in overregulation, harassment of business owners, and taking taxpayers for granted.

Then they want us to believe that our state economy isn’t growing because of our roads — and that only tolls can fix them.

Having already imposed nearly every other kind of tax, perhaps it’s no wonder that the big spenders in our state are salivating over tolls. Although in theory, user fees can make more sense than other kinds of taxes, right here, right now, tolls should be an absolute non-starter.

Here’s why. For starters, in Connecticut, tolls would simply be a tax that would fall hardest on our working class. Unlike other states, because of an agreement with the federal government, Connecticut can’t install border tolls on our existing highways without losing federal transportation dollars.

Instead, the state would re-install congestion tolling along the highways we use to commute to work every day. By the governor’s own estimates, Connecticut’s people would pay 70 percent of the collected revenues.

That means costs would fall most heavily on those who commute the farthest to work — which makes congestionstyle tolling a particularly regressive form of taxation. Indeed, a Brookings Institute study found that between 2000 and 2012, proximity to employment fell more for the poor and minorities than for others. It makes a twisted kind of sense: after all, it is far easier for hedge-fund moguls to work from home (or in an expensive town nearby) than for the lower-paid employees in the industries that serve them.

And it wouldn’t be cheap. According to an I-95 congestion tolling study by the Department of Transportation, a full-length, one-way trip between New Haven and New York during peak hours would cost a commuter $6, and the same trip on the Merritt Parkway would be $5. Over a month of workdays, that could add $240 to a working person’s monthly budget — a considerable expense.

But those are just some of the practical concerns. More generally: How does the governor and his allies justify asking for even one cent more of our money when they have been such poor stewards of all that we’ve already given them?

Connecticut has the sixth highest gas tax in the nation — but our state ranks 47th in terms of cost effectiveness for its transportation spending. Connecticut has spent a total of $477,875 per mile of road; the national average is only $160,997 per mile.

What’s more, our administrative costs for transportation are the highest in the country — at a whopping $83,282 per mile of road.

Time after time, the administration has chosen to build expensive new projects rather than making the less exciting Liebau — but more responsible — decision to go ahead with critical infrastructure repairs. The governor pushed for a rail line from Hartford to Springfield, Massachusetts. At an eye-watering $1 billion to construct and $27 million to operate each year, it’s projected to carry fewer than 3,500 passengers per day (with fares covering only 10 percent of the operating costs).

Likewise, the CTfastrak bus line cost $567 million to construct and consumes $17.5 million more in yearly operating expenses than original cost estimates — despite buses running unoccupied at taxpayer expense. In the meantime, the estimated 150,000 daily commuters on Metro-North endure growing delays and deteriorating conditions.

Here’s the truth: Connecticut has not suffered for lack of transportation money. Rather, the governor (like his predecessors) and the legislature have raided the Special Transportation Fund that could have paid for critical infrastructure.

They’ve used the money, instead, to perpetuate a status quo that doesn’t work for the vast majority of Connecticut’s people — state employees who are paid more than any other state workers in the nation, when public and private sector compensation are compared.

And yet the governor and his allies demand more of our money — in the form of tolls, and a higher gas tax, and a new tire tax —without so much as offering a single proposal to address the broken system that drives these spiraling costs. That’s some nerve, all right.

It’s time to push back. Without serious, meaningful reforms of the structural problems that are driving our state over the fiscal precipice, Connecticut’s people must slap away the grasping hands of their cash-hungry politicians and tell them: “Not one cent more.”

Without serious, meaningful reforms of the structural problems that are driving our state over the fiscal precipice, Connecticut’s people must slap away the grasping hands of their cash-hungry politicians.