The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Lamont eyes ‘risky’ GOP transit plan
HARTFORD — If he’s disappointed at continual rejections of his 10year transportation plan by fellow Democrats, Gov. Ned Lamont now has a chance to form an unusual coalition with Republicans.
Lamont is being wooed by Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano, whose caucus supports most of the governor’s 10year transportation improvement plan and on Thursday, offered an alternative to the controversial and nowdead scheme for 14 highway tolls.
But while generally supportive, the governor’s initial assessment was skeptical, because Republicans want to use about half of the state’s nearly $3billion emergency reserves.
“While I appreciate Senator Fasano’s proposal to partially fund muchneeded infrastructure investments, taking money out of the Rainy Day Fund is a risky proposition that requires serious evaluation,” Lamont said in a lateafternoon statement.
In recent days the governor has said he’s willing to discuss alternatives.
Still, the possibility of a special legislative session on transportation, all but dead on Wednesday when Senate Democrats displayed their opposition to tolls, was rekindled Thursday.
Fasano and several other GOP senators rolled out a 10year, $18 billion plan that would use $1.5billion of the Rainy Day Fund to pay down some unfunded pension obligations, then use savings to help juggle more than $500 million a year in lowinterest federal loans; and additional revenue in the state’s dedicated transportation budget they said could fund the projects that Lamont has proposed in his “CT2030” program.
Lamont last week offered a $21billion plan with 14 tolls scattered throughout the state, but faced opposition from Democratic lawmakers fearful of the issue biting them in next year’s 2020 races for the General Assembly.
Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, DNorwalk, said Thursday that there was no tension between his Democratic caucus and Lamont, but the tolls are a major impediment to approving the decadelong plan.
“There were conversations, discussions,” Duff described the closeddoor majority caucus’s Wednesday meeting with Lamont. “To a person, there was a lot of support for CT 2030, and just not that particular way of funding it.”
Duff, along with Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, DNew Haven, and Speaker of the House Joe Aresimowicz, DBerlin, said that the Republican proposal, which Fasano said was developed in recent weeks, was worthy of scrutiny.
“I’m glad that various caucuses are putting out plans so everyone recognizes how important it is for our economy,” Duff said in an interview, stressing he had not yet seen the details. “As I’ve said all along the best transportation plan is a bipartisan one. And I hope in the end it is bipartisan.”
“It’s been a roller coaster for sure,” said Sen. Carlo Leone, DStamford, cochairman of the legislative
Transportation Committee, describing a multimonth process that fell short of a bipartisan goal. “We tried to meet Republicans half way but they were weren’t willing. I’m not sure I would endorse the Republican proposal at this time.”
The GOP’s “FASTR CT” would fall about $3 billion short of Lamont proposed overall spending plan, and would rely on an appointed board to vet individual projects, about 25 percent of which would be supported by various lowinterest federal programs that Lamont has also targeted.
Fasano said it’s a viable alternative, which he showed to Lamont’s staff on Wednesday, shortly after it became plain that there isn’t enough support in the state Senate.
“I just don’t see that’s the way the wind is blowing at this point,” Fasano, RNorth Haven, told reporters during a 52minute briefing in the State Capitol.
Patrick Sasser of Stamford, who heads the group No Tolls CT, saw the combined collapse of Lamont’s plan in the Democraticcontrolled Senate and the release of the GOP proposal, as a welcome coincidence.
“We're glad to see a transportation plan that doesn't rely on instituting another tax on the people of Connecticut with tolls and one that removes pension payments from the Special Transportation Fund, something No Tolls CT has advocated for,” Sasser said in a statement.
“Obviously, there are several aspects of the Senate Republicans' plan that will have to be hashed out by lawmakers regarding the Rainy Day Fund and federal borrowing, but we see this plan as a good step toward reaching a bipartisan solution that doesn't levy another tax on the working people of Connecticut.”
The Senate Republicans’ notolls alternative, called Fiscal Accountability & Sustainable Transportation Reform CT, would transfer $1.5 billion from the the $2.7billion Rainy Day Fund, and invest it in the underfunded state employee retirement plan.
That would free up other funds from savings in fringe benefits, to help stabilize the Special Transportation Fund, which would also be supported by the state’s new tax on car sales and $100 million in new annual state bonding.
Fasano said that federal officials who want states to be able to show a dedicated revenue source a reason why Lamont proposed tolls would accept a stabilized transportation fund as such a source and still remain eligible for the Build America program.
Looney, the Senate’s top Democrat, said he and his staff are reviewing the proposal with the nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis, which also helped Fasano develop the GOP initiative.
In an interview, Looney agreed that there was broadbased support for the governor’s plan, with its detailed road and bridge projects and rail improvements, including enhanced service on the Danbury and New Canaan lines with direct trips to Grand Central Station, for the first time; along with a goal of reducing the length of time for train rides to New York by 10to15 minutes.
“Our lack of consensus came down to how to fund it,” Looney said. He said that a followup meeting with the governor originally scheduled for Thursday was postponed. He admitted that if Republicans and Democrats can come together quickly, there could be a special session on transportation either before the end of 2019 or in January of next year, before the General Assembly reconvenes for its short budgetadjustment session starting Feb. 5.
“It may be difficult to thread the needle in calendar 2019, but it is still possible to get something done,” Looney said. If a bipartisan deal can coalesce quickly, the transportation package could piggyback on an expected special legislative session on an estimated $30million deal with the state’s hospitals that in recent years have been overtaxed.
The Republican transportation plan would still leave at least $1.2 billion in emergency reserves, as a fiscal backstop in case of an economic downturn. A newly reformed Transportation Strategy Board, made up of business and labor leaders as well as transportation experts, would closely review projects and recommending funding priorities.
“They have to prove that these projects are worthy,” Fasano said. “There is a lot of flexibility in this plan.”
For the sake of the new proposal, Fasano said he would leave the governor’s priorities in place, including the 14 bridges where he proposed tolls. He said that about $500 million in socalled placeholders lower priority projects including signage replacements in the DOT seemed to be larded in Lamont’s plan.
The governor’s statement said that growing the state economy is his top goal, and that transportation infrastructure is crucial.
“My plan, CT2030, provides a comprehensive, multimodal vision for Connecticut’s transportation and economic future.” Lamont said.
“It invests $15.6 billion in making our infrastructure safer and $5.5 billion in transformative enhancement projects that allow Connecticut residents to spend more time with their families and less time on the road.”
Fasano said that the GOP idea would invest only $2.4 billion in the enhanced transit projects.
kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter: @KenDixonCT